Battlestar Galactica: Operation Exodus - Survival in the Colonies
by zagor03
Summary: The Cylon attack had come and left the colonies devastated. Admiral Thorn was to collect survivors around the colonies during the Battle at Virgon, and then hold out in Red Horse Nebula until the Atlantis arrived. The colonial fleet left in the colonies led by Admiral Thorn lasted through Day Zero and the next 50 days following the Cylon attack until Atlantis arrived. OE Spin-off
1. 1x01 Zero Hour

**Written by Dragon Taylor &amp; Zagor03**

**Prologue**

A message had been received from Picon Fleet Headquarters informing Admiral Thorn of the Cylon attack. Not long after, messages of malfunctions and Cylon viruses disabling the fleet from the CNP and the destruction of Picon Fleet HQ were received throughout the colonies. Admiral Nagala took command of the colonial fleet, ordering all colonial ships to Virgon for a counter attack. Orders had been sent to Admiral Thorn from Nagala: to begin receiving colonial ships at Red Horse Nebula, and to evacuate as many ships and people from the colonies as possible for Operation Exodus. The regular colonial fleet had orders to arrive at Virgon for a counter attack; they were unaware that the remaining colonial fleet gathering at Virgon was just a decoy to occupy the Cylons long enough for evacuations throughout the colonies. Cylon forces began jumping around Virgon within an hour, creating a standoff with the arriving colonial fleet above Virgon. A large fleet of civilian ships evacuating from Virgon assembled behind Virgon's moon guarded by a Titan class Gunstar, though the cylons largely ignored the ships and as they prepared their attack on the colonial military fleet over Virgon. The Cylon fleet waited to attack until after the majority of the remaining colonial fleet had arrived over Virgon, with a majority of the Cylon fleet diverted from other areas of the colonies after accomplishing their assigned missions in order to amass an overwhelming force against the colonial fleet. This left most of the colonies empty of Cylon contacts while the Cylons thought they were destroying the rest of the colonial fleet, allowing safe and undisturbed evacuations across the colonies while the battle raged.

**Red Horse Nebula Olympia Station**

**Olympia Station C.I.C.**

"Have the defense force remain as is to protect the system, and inform Valkyrie and Poseidon to be prepared for a lot of new arrivals of friendlies in the system," Admiral Thorn ordered.

"Aye sir. Also, I would suggest sending out Gunstar Calamity to escort transports for evacuating personnel throughout the colonies, in addition to the Raptors being sent out to find civilian ships around the colonies," Commander Corgon said.

"Do so, though be sure to inform Calamity's commander to use ECM and try to remain unnoticed by the Cylons. We can accomplish more in the evacuation if we're unnoticed and it's to our benefit for the Cylons not to know just how many ships are escaping the attack," Admiral Thorn said firmly.

"Yes sir," Commander Corgon replied, turning to send out new orders and messages to the fleet.

Gunstar Calamity joined several transport ships in a jump to the colonies, following dozens of raptors outside the nebula for the jump to complete their separate missions.

**Evacuations around the colonies**

Gunstar Calamity and twelve transport ships jumped into orbit of Leonis after receiving a report from raptors that it was safe to arrive there. The area was empty of enemy contacts, with nuclear detonations spotted on the surface of Leonis making it clear the Cylons had come and left already.

Calamity set up her ECM and began coordinating raptors to survey the planet and nearby space for survivors.

Raptor 282 quickly reported survivors from a fleet training base on the moon, and the transports began launching shuttles to pick up the colonial fleet personnel and marines from the base. A few thousand survivors were retrieved from the base within twenty minutes.

After finding all the survivors from the training base and in small pockets across Leonis, the transports filled to the brim with people jumped back Red Horse Nebula. Calamity escorted the remaining transports to Aerelon after receiving a report of confirmed survivors on a ground base by a raptor. Another thirty minutes passed before the transports filled up on fleet personnel and other survivors, and jumped back to Red Horse Nebula in tow with a total of over 10,000 surviving fleet personnel.

Heavy lifters also jumped in around Leonis, Aerelon, and other areas in the colonies to pick up hundreds of disabled vipers; their pilots stranded, alone, and left to die of asphyxiation by the Cylons. Countless other vipers were in ruins form Cylon missile impacts. Several raptors began SAR on the wrecks of Battlestars and other colonial ships around the colonies; most crews of the destroyed ships had already been killed, with a few hundred survivors in several ships transported out of the combat zone and receiving necessary medical attention.

Raptors jumped around the colonies randomly, finding dozens of civilian ships fleeing the Cylons. Several raptors had to engage raiders and destroy them with interceptor missiles to protect the civilian vessels. Over 20 mining and refinery surviving ships were retrieved from the colonies' asteroid belts.

**Deep space outside the colonies**

BSG 98 drifted through space at sublight speed on their way back to the colonies, following a two year mission to survey numerous systems in the Promar sector. It was quiet in the fleet as they prepared for several more FTL jumps to arrive at the colonies. In the meantime, messages that had been slowed by their distance and FTL travel had begun coming to the fleet ships from the deep space communications satellites.

"Sir…" the communications officer aboard BSG98's flagship Battlestar Pacifica said shakily, approaching Admiral Erik Jones.

Admiral Jones noticed the communications officer shaking, turning an unhealthy shade of green as if sick, as he handed reports to the Admiral. Jones steadied the Lieutenant with his left hand as he turned to look at the reports in his right hand. His eyes bugged out in shock as he quickly read through the recent received messages from the colonies.

"Why didn't we receive these messages earlier Lieutenant?" Admiral Jones said sharply, continuing to look over the reports with wide eyes. His face fell, with a tear escaping his left eye, as he read the last and most recent message detailing the damage done to the colonies.

"I'm sorry sir. We just received them moments ago, and we should've received them hours ago but our distance coupled with FTL hopping to get back to the colonies delayed the process," the lieutenant replied quietly, steadying on his feet as the admiral's hand gripped his shoulder tightly.

Admiral Jones closed his eyes tightly as the full weight of the developments hit him. Moments later after letting go of the lieutenant, Admiral Jones walked over to the communications receiver on the Command and Control station in the center of CIC. Picking up the receiver, he mentally prepared for what to say to the fleet in his head. Switching the comms unit to fleet wide, the Admiral began to speak to the ships of BSG 98.

"This is the Admiral. Moments ago, the fleet began receiving delayed messages about the current events of the colonies. It's my unfortunate duty to inform you that the Cylons have returned to attack the colonies. A major Cylon attack is underway, with Picon Fleet Headquarters and a quarter of the fleet lost in the first wave of the attacks. The CNP program has been infected with Cylon viruses and needs removing; unfortunately this piece of information comes too late for a majority of the colonial fleet. Admiral Nagala has taken personal command of the fleet aboard the Battlestar Atlantia, and is leading the remnants of the fleet in a counterattack against the Cylon fleet at Virgon. Multiple nuclear detonations have been reported across the colonies, and word has not been given on casualties, but they will be high. How and why the Cylons attacked doesn't really matter at this point. As of this moment, we are at war with the Cylons for the survival of the human race. All ships are to go to condition one, begin removing the CNP from the fleet, and prepare for battle upon our arrival at the colonies. As members of the colonial fleet, you've trained for combat such as what is ahead of us. Mourn the dead later, and focus on what must be done now to ensure the survival of the colonies. We will succeed and get our revenge on the Cylons for what has occurred this day," Admiral Jones said sternly, and then put down the comms receiver when he finished.

"Begin jump prep," Admiral Jones said to the CIC, turning to look into the eyes of each and every one of the crew members. He was satisfied to see determination replace the fear and uncertainty on the faces of the crew.

Battlestars Pacifica, Saturn, Orion, Gunstars Terpsichore, Terra, Themis, Zephyrus, Psyche, Polyxena, and three tylium tankers of BSG 98 began jumping out of the system moments later, getting closer to the colonies with each FTL jump.

**Evacuation around the colonies**

ELINT ships Everest, Star Chaser, Wisdom, Night Shadow, and Vision were met by raptors a few hours away from Picon at sublight speed, and were sent to Red Horse Nebula.

5 civilian mobile shipyards were found outside of Tauron and sent to Red Horse Nebula within twenty minutes, their FTL drives taking a little to recharge for the jump.

A few medical ships were found hiding with Strikestar Courageous in orbit of one of gas giant Hestia's moons. Over 4500 cadets were retrieved as well, as they had been in training inside the ships when the Cylon attack started.

Several more transports escorted by Gunstar Calamity jumped to the Aquarian moon Larentis. Within thirty minutes, several thousand marines and fleet personnel were retrieved from the moon base.

**Picon, Fleet Shipyards and Docks**

Hundreds of ships were pieces of floating debris, several of which still had flames and explosions across their hulls, across the Picon shipyards and docks. Two Battlestars near the shipyards were floating wreckages, with no survivors from the Cylon assault.

Several civilian ships began clearing the wreckage of the damaged docks and debris surrounding the shipyards. Stealthstar Banshee began issuing orders to the surrounding colonial ships, helping them get away from the wreckage of the shipyards safely and spinning up their FTL drives. The dozens of colonial ships stuck to hiding in the dark shadowy edge of the shipyards when Cylon raiders passed through the system for a quick recon of the area before leaving.

Hours after the destruction unleashed on the shipyards and Picon itself, several raptors jumped to the system and began leading the surviving ships to safety at the Red Horse Nebula.

A report from the raptor pilots intrigued Admiral Thorn, and he ordered several tugs to jump near the docks over Picon. The tugs attached themselves to several of the less damaged sections of the shipyard and docks, and using their FTL drives jumped the docks to the Red Horse Nebula. The docks were searched for survivors, finding several hundred people inside, as well as materials from the shipyards. With the successful recovery of survivors from Picon's docks and shipyards, Admiral Thorn ordered the retrieval of sections of shipyards from Scorpia, Canceron, Tauron, and Leonis. Several thousand workers from the various shipyards were found by SAR parties among the retrieved docks once they were dragged to Red Horse Nebula by FTL tugs. Caprica and Libran had a significant Cylon presence in the area preventing their docks from being retrieved as well, and raptors made the shocking discovery that the Libran shipyard survived intact with several Cylon basestars guarding the docks.

**Evacuations around the colonies**

Dozens of civilian ships reclaimed around the colonies had been sent to retrieve survivors from the surface of Tauron, Picon, Canceron, Aquaria, and Sagittaron. Several working ships were found in the spaceports of the colonies and put to work to fill up with survivors, and then lifted up into space. A few hundred thousand people were packed aboard the previously half-filled transport ships, quickly filling the ships to capacity. An hour after filling the ships up, the civilian transports jumped back to Red Horse Nebula escorted by several Gunstars. Over 20,000 marines and fleet personnel were retrieved from several surviving marine bases and fleet facilities on the colonies, along with the civilians. Most of the military bases had been leveled by nukes, with few bases escaping destruction by luck of working raptors taking out the nukes targeting them, and numerous fifty megaton nuclear explosions were seen across the surface of the colonies.

**A few hours outside Aquaria space**

BSG 36 reeled from the Cylon attack. Battlestar Aethra, Gunstars Lachesis, Laius, Memnon, cruisers Merope, Pelias, Plutus, Sileni, Syrinx, and escortstars Juventas, Thyestes, Urania, and Vertumnus were destroyed in the opening stages of the battle with three Cylon baseships. Several ships had been lost as the CNP left them disabled, with several others destroyed by the mass of raiders and oncoming nukes from the Cylons.

Battlestar Galatea received several nuclear hits across her hull, with extreme damage inside and 80% casualties. She set course for the nearest baseship, continuing on through oncoming raiders and rammed the ship even as she continued firing her cannons at the basestar and nearby raiders. A flash explosion was set off on impact, the innards of both ships becoming vulnerable to explosions and fire. Both ships exploded moments later, killing everyone aboard and destroying several nearby vipers and raiders in the ensuing secondary explosions as debris was sent in every direction.

Battlestar Neptune remained in one piece and continued firing her KEWs at the baseships as much of the fleet was disabled or lost. Gunstars Phosphor, Nox, Hero, and Heavy cruisers Echo, Eros, and Amor also continued firing at the Cylons.

Over half of the vipers from BSG 36 were disabled from the CNP, with the remaining survivors mostly in older or non-updated vipers having to take on the scores of oncoming raiders. Over a hundred raiders were quickly destroyed as they hadn't expected any resistance at all from the fleet, the vipers taking advantage of their surprise to fire on scores of raiders in their way.

Gunstar Phosphor drew closer and closer to the portside baseship. Vipers and raiders dueled each other in deadly dogfights all around. A salvo of missiles and cannon fire was launched towards the baseship, with seven missiles impacting across the central axis of the baseship. The central axis erupted in flame and decompressions, explosions tossed debris outward as the baseship engulfed with flame exploded in a bright white light. Several missiles impacted along Phosphor in return from surrounding raiders, creating fires and hull breaches in several sections as the Gunstar lurched from the sudden weapons impacts.

Battlestar Neptune turned toward the remaining baseship, closing distance until optimum firing range was achieved alongside the baseship. Neptune tilted on its axis, leveling to bring about all her cannons and various missile batteries to bear on the baseship. The cannons and missile batteries opened up and unleashed missile salvos, and an incredible display of flack fire barreling towards the baseship. The baseship never had a chance, with an instant and devastating effect as Neptune's weapons found their mark. The flak fire tore into the baseship's armor to great effect, ripping right through it and forcing several layers of armor off the baseship. Missiles compounded damage, creating miniature explosions and fires inside the baseship. The baseship began to come apart in multiple explosions.

The Gunstars and Neptune combined flak fire on the scores of remaining raiders, quickly destroying them in conjunction with the viper squadrons. Inexperienced, many raiders were led into traps by vipers – destroyed by other viper weapons fire, or led into the flak fire barriers of the Gunstars. Within fifteen minutes, the raiders were destroyed – with several more vipers lost as well and damage from missiles impacting across the Gunstars.

Once space was clear of Cylons, SAR was started on the destroyed ships of BSG 36, and various disabled vipers were towed back aboard Neptune and the Gunstars. Over twenty viper pilots were found in their ejection seats by SAR raptors as well.

A few hours passed before the battlegroup could prepare to move out, receiving various messages of what was happening across the colonies in the meantime. Commander Adama aboard the Galactica took command of the fleet upon the destruction of the remaining fleet led by Admiral Nagala on the Atlantia at Virgon. Surviving ships were ordered to Ragnar. Another message was also received on a secure channel over Fleet Comm line Alpha, telling the fleet to go to the Red Horse Nebula. A raptor from Admiral Thorn's fleet arrived near BSG 36 as they continued rescue operations, and delivered the message for the battle group to jump to the Red Horse Nebula. Once the fleet was prepared, all the remaining ships of BSG 36 jumped to the Red Horse Nebula.

**Hours after the fighting over Virgon ended**

**Red Horse Nebula Olympia Station**

**Olympia Station C.I.C.**

Admiral Thorn stood rooted in place, leaning over the command and control station in the CIC, contemplating the latest news. Admiral Nagala and the fleet at Virgon had all been destroyed after several hours of fighting with the entire Cylon fleet. Commander Adama had then sent out a message of taking command of the colonial fleet and initiated a mass rendezvous at Ragnar Anchorage. Within a few hours, Adama's gathered fleet had left the colonies after a confrontation with Cylon basestars outside Ragnar. This information had been confirmed by Raptors sent to check on Adama's fleet; reporting the presence of a damaged basestar as well as the wreck from a basestar, several patrolling wings of raiders, and the debris of various raiders and vipers.

Commander Corgon slowly approached Admiral Thorn, noticing his faraway look as he leaned against the CIC's center command and control table.

"Admiral, here are the latest reports from the fleet now that rescue missions have ceased," Commander Corgon said, handing Admiral Thorn a file of papers detailing the latest news of the fleet's various ships.

"BSG 98 and 36 survived?" Admiral Thorn asked in surprise as he leafed through the file.

"Aye sir, raptors brought them in recently. BSG 36 was devastated in their battle with the Cylons, with only a portion of their fleet surviving and making it here. BSG 98 was on a deep space mission and completely missed the Cylon attack. Both fleets are having the CNP removed from their systems wherever necessary and making other repairs," Commander Corgon replied.

"Good to have some more active fleet units. I see we have plenty of decommissioned and reserve fleet units, and a number of cadets. Plus Theseus is in need of crew members, since we haven't officially commissioned her. It'll take some time to get crews outfitted to each ship," Admiral Thorn said.

"We rescued tens of thousands of active fleet personnel in addition to cadets, so we should have enough crew for the ships here. In addition to BSGs 36 and 98, and our current ships patrolling around the nebula, there are several new additions to the fleet. 352 civilian ships arrived from Virgon under escort from the Titan II class Gunstar Thaddeus, as well as the units of the Virgon and Aerelon Guards which were on a training mission during the attack. The Aerelon Guard contains the Battlestar Freedom (Geneva class MK2), the Battlecruiser Hoplite (Hoplite class), the Heavy Cruisers Cataphract and Javelin (Cataphract class) the Light Cruisers Byzantine, Persia, and Agamemnon (Byzantine class) the Destroyers Phalanx, Gauntlet, and Gearing (Phalanx class) and the the Patrolstars Dagger, Hunter, Crossbow, Percy, and Gamble (Dagger class). The Virgon Guard consists of the Battlestar Independence (Geneva class MK2), the Battlecruiser Venitrix (Hoplite class), the Heavy Cruisers Aether, and Adder (Cataphract class), the Light Cruisers Ares, and Argos (Byzantine class), the Destroyers Anubis, and Archer (Phalanx class), and finally the Patrolstars Artemis, Avenger, Baldur and Ceros (Dagger class)," Commander Corgon reported, taking a deep breath before continuing.

"We have also received approximately 400 civilian ships from around the colonies. There was a large group from Hera's junkyards as well and they saved and jumped the station. They also brought with them the Battlestar Concordia, and the Warstar Daedalus which are in perfect shape and only need to top off their crews. Additionally; two Columbia II class Battlestars the Titan and Rycon, and two Hephaestus mobile docks, of which one dock holds the Mercury class Battlestar Polaris that was damaged in an explosion some time before the attack and written off on the orders of President Adar. They have six Defender class Gunstars; the Tigris, Claw, Storm, Altair, Modesto and Hook. Then there is the Titan II class Gunstar Stiletto, one Vigilant class Gunstar Sournier, two Berzerk class support ships Sandstorm and Tauron, one Vanguard Raptor carrier class ship Arakiel, two Harrier class Strikestars Harrier and Crusher, and two Minerva class Battlestars Minerva and Hades. Plus two older Titan Gunstars which were partially scrapped, but can be rebuilt carried by the second Hephaestus mobile dock. Finally, there are the 12 Firestars and the 2 Ares class Battlestars they used to jump the station. As to those, I would suggest scrapping the Ares class Battlestars to make repairs on our other ships and use their jump drives to install a permanent FTL for Hera station," Commander Corgon said.

"Noted. I agree that the Ares class Battlestars should be scrapped and used for their parts. They're pretty outdated, partially decommissioned and taken apart as is, and we could definitely use their powerful FTL units for Hera's station. Some of the firestars might need to be scrapped as well, and will need an assessment to see which could be combat capable or should be used as materials for other ships. Continue Commander," Admiral Thorn said thoughtfully, thinking over the fleet units for their capabilities.

"Yes sir. Also, the Battlestar Caprica jumped in some time ago on the orders of Admiral Nagala and she's been docked to the station for repairs. I think she will join Valkyrie and Poseidon after her repairs are finished. Battlestar Victorious was badly damaged in the Cylon attack near Leonis and has been docked to Eternity. A few dozen civilian ships and Stealthstar Banshee were recovered from Picon's shipyards. Tens of thousands of dock workers from shipyards around the colonies were recovered along with several sections of shipyards; all except for Caprica's and Libran's shipyards. There are also a few ELINT ships, smaller mobile docks, a few medical ships, one training Strikestar Courageous, and they brought with them over 4,500 cadets. Plus there are over 10,000 personnel that we saved from the moon training base in orbit of Leonis and from the ground base on Aerelon. As well as thousands of marines and personnel from the Aquarian moon Larentis, and some inspected destroyed ships around the colonies," Commander Corgon said.

"I want you to send more scouts to the recent battle sites around and throughout the colonies and find as many personnel as possible, as well as commence salvage operations on the destroyed warships from our fleet. Virgon and Scorpia will be the most important targets given the recent battles there. Even if we only find more viper pilots it'll be worth it. We'll need to start surveys of the colonies to pick up what survivors we can and stay secure here until the Atlantis arrives," Admiral Thorn said after a moment of thought, happy about the survivor count and apprehensive of what was to come.

"Aye sir," Commander Corgon replied, leaving to start sending out teams to recon the colonies.

**Cylon Space, Command Baseship 01**

"How many survivors were there again?!" Cavil yelled in outrage.

"Okay, but you are not going to like this," Doral said, "There are several groups that we know of so far; first there's Galactica's group at Ragnar which succeeded in escaping from Ragnar and now is on its way to the Promar sector in it's so called search for Earth. There's Pegasus under Admiral Cain, and we don't have any idea where she is, but with her temperament we will find her soon. The Battlestars Prometheus, Celestial and Eternal are all missing, as well as Battlestar Nova and the Lobo Negro station, and several Gunstars with them. We scouted several junkyards including the biggest one inside of the Hera nebula. It's abandoned, but from the list of ships that are supposed to be there, many are missing including the Warstar Daedalus. Janice reports that the Battlestar Concordia survived. We also have a list of additional ships that are missing but presumed destroyed in the fighting; the Battlestars Caprica, Valkyrie and Poseidon. Then there is the Battlestar Victorious that escaped from Leonis. As well as the survivors from BSG 36 and 98. We also managed to make some headway on those phantom ships you wanted, finding their names and all are listed as Battlestars; Atlantis, Sword, Argona and Pleiades. Not to mention over 300 civilian ships that jumped with the Titan class Gunstar from Virgon, along with the Aerelon and Virgon Guard units."

"Damn, damn, this is not as I planned it to happen!" Cavil said.

"It's never as you plan Cavil," Kathy said

"Watch it sister," Cavil said.

"Or what you will box me?" Kathy asked sarcastically.

"I might just do that," Cavil said narrowing his eyes at Kathy.

"Fighting like humans will get us nowhere, it is important to deal with all the remaining humans on the colonies and then start hunting the rest," Simon said.

"Fine, the sooner we finish this the better. I will take half of the fleet to pursue Galactica and her fleet. A small fleet of five baseships will be sent to find Prometheus and that colony of theirs. And the rest of the fleet will stay here," Cavil said.

**Military section**

**BATTLESTARS** (19)  
Upgraded Nova class: Theseus (2150)  
Mercury class: Polaris (Down for repairs/recommissioning, 2250 estimated for crew), Pacifica (3200), Neptune (2100)  
Minerva class: Minerva (2500), Hades (2250), Saturn (2600)  
Valkyrie class: Valkyrie (1520), Poseidon (1510), Caprica (1480), Orion (1500)  
Skinfaxi class: Concordia (2200)  
Durga class: Victorious (2300)  
Heracles class: Titan (2305) Columbia II subtype  
Columbia II class: Athena (2320), Cerberus (2200), Rycon (2400)  
Geneva class: Freedom (2000), Independence (2000)

**WARSTARS** (2)  
Daedalus class: Daedalus (2700)  
Andraste class: Argona (4000)

**BATTLECRUISERS** (2)  
Hoplite class: Hoplite (1200), Venitrix (1200)

**HEAVY CRUISERS** (7)  
Cataphract class: Cataphract (850), Javelin (850), Aether (850), Adder (850)

Mars class: Echo (1100), Eros (1050), Amor (980)

**GUNSTARS **(37)  
Titan II class: Stiletto (800), Thaddeus (800), Calamity (744), Sturgeon (800), Stargazer (800), Redeemer (820), Albatross (802), Resurgence (800), Avenger (710), Aggressive (805), Nox (700), Terra (900), Themis (800), Psyche (800).  
Defender class: Tigris (550), Claw (550), Storm (550), Altair (459), Modesto (551), Hook (500), Taurus (550), Harpy (550), Raven (520), Tower (450), Brusser (500), Fury (502).  
Vigilant class: Sournier (450), Hale (412).  
Striker class: Striker (900), Avarice (900), Starfury (900), Hero (800), Terpsichore (850).  
Cygnus class: Styx (600), Zephyrus (700), Polyxena (600), Phosphor (650).

**LIGHT CRUISERS** (5)  
Byzantine class: Byzantine (500), Persia (500) Agamemnon (500), Ares (500), Argos (500).

**STEALTHSTAR** (1)  
Banshee class: Banshee (800).

**STRIKESTARS** (3 + 4)  
Harrier class: Harrier (800), Crasher (820).  
Fury class: Aventine (400), (plus 4 on Eternity repairs/commissioning).

**DESTROYERS**  
Phalanx class: Phalanx (400) Gauntlet (400), Gearing (400), Anubis (400), Archer (400).

**FIRESTARS** (2 + 12)  
Hawkeye class: Hawking (700), Star Rider (700), (Plus 12 decommissioned, awaiting a thorough status check).

**ESCORTSTARS and PARTOLSTARS** (12)  
Berzerk class: Sandstorm (1050), Tauron (1020).  
Vanguard class: Arakiel (600).  
Dagger class: Dagger (350), Hunter (350), Crossbow (350), Persy (350) Gimble (350), Artemis (350), Avenger (350), Baldr (350), Ceros (350).

**MOBILE DOCKS AND SHIPYARDS**  
Hephaestus class: Hephaestus (3000), Forge (3015)  
Unity class: Unity (12540), Eternity (12000)  
Olympia class: Olympia (7000)  
Hera class: Hera (3000)

**ELINT SHIPS** (5)  
Searcher class: Everest (600), Star Chaser (600), Wisdom (700), Night Shadow (640), Vision (900).


	2. 1x02 Dragon's Teeth

**Dragon's Teeth  
**

**Red Horse Nebula**

**Olympia Station, Admiral Thorn's quarters**

**Day 3 Since the Fall**

**Admiral Thorn's Log**

_It's been about three days since the Cylon attack was completed, leaving the fleet and the colonies in ruins. Many civilian ships were found and brought to safety here in Red Horse Nebula; even more so over the last three days as raptors gathered ships before patrolling raiders found them. Several colonial fleet ships were recovered and gathered here, mostly on the first day, as well as military personnel, unfortunately the amount of friendly units being gathering here has dwindled. The Cylons recently attacked the outlying colonial outposts outside the colonies systematically, and virtually everywhere has been confirmed hit and bombarded or appropriated by the Cylons as of now._

_The CNP program has been confirmed as removed from all colonial units inside Red Horse Nebula. The ships in the fleet have started undergoing necessary repairs and upgrades to get up to battle ready conditions. Recovered fleet personnel and cadets have been spread out as necessary among the fleet to get every ship up to necessary crew complements. It'll takes days and maybe even weeks to get most of the ships in the fleet up to the necessary combat readiness level to take on enemy units; so many fleet personnel lacking experience and even the retired personnel coming back to duty require time to fully integrate with the crews and get to the necessary readiness level for active combat engagements. The fleet ships guarding the entrance to the nebula are ready for combat, however the only other units actively ready to risk going outside the nebula for a full fleet engagement are the survivors from BSGs 36 and 98. Admiral Jones and Commander Jacob have agreed to prepare operations against the Cylons with their units alone as the rest of the fleet gets on its feet. The Cylons likely know of their survival after gathering a census of the remaining colonial fleet after the Cylon attack, possibly making use of the fleet databases from Picon if the mainframe was salvaged or appropriated – though given the original Cylon attack they already know a lot of confidential details of fleet composition's anyway. With BSG 36 and 98 keeping the Cylons busy, Red Horse Nebula has a higher chance of remaining secure until Stryker returns to the colonies._

_Recovered docks from most of the shipyards in the colonies yielded many fleet personnel and shipyard workers, as well as numerous materials for ship repair and supply. With all that's going on it's not a priority at the moment, but the recovered docks could be salvaged and integrated with our shipyards and Hera to increase their repair and construction facilities greatly. Perhaps we'll do it on the way to Avalon or when we get there._

_End Log._

Admiral Thorn looked up as he heard knocking from the door to his quarters.

"Come in," Admiral Thorn said, shutting down his command log recordings and sitting back in his seat.

Admiral Jones walked into the room, bypassing the stationed guards who quickly shut the door after him, and walked over to sit down in the nearest chair opposite Admiral Thorn.

"Reporting as requested Admiral Thorn," Admiral Jones said wearily.

"Yes, Admiral Jones, I've gone over your mission logs for BSG 98, and after learning of where Commander Adama lead his group to, I believe that the data obtained in your mission will be crucial for recovering the colonial assets Adama had with him," Admiral Thorn said briskly.

"Where did they go?" Admiral Jones asked raising an eyebrow.

"Reports from several sources confirm that Adama took his fleet of ships to the Promar sector, way beyond the red line in an attempt to get as far from the Cylons as possible. Intercepts from communications among the Cylons have also been confirmed as accurate in that the Cylons sent a large fleet after Adama," Admiral Thorn said.

"I see," Admiral Jones said in understanding.

"Your mission may prove invaluable in the future given the extensive information you gathered over the Promar sector and a great deal of previously unmapped deep space away from the colonies. We don't yet have the capability to narrow down Adama's location exactly and we can't risk fleet units looking for him just yet, but in the future we have the option to eventually track down Adama and the Cylon fleet chasing after him," Admiral Thorn said.

"Indeed. It's unfortunate that we can't send units after Adama now since every day they're alone out there those colonial ships face danger of destruction from the Cylons. But the fact is we're spread too thin as is with what survivors there are left even here," Admiral Jones said sadly, his eyes becoming downcast as he considered the death and destruction chasing after fellow colonial units and being able to do nothing to stop it.

"Yes. Another piece of good news is that the Cylons won't have the benefit of the Intel your mission recovered of deep space surrounding the Promar sector; so Adama should have a fair chance to get away from the Cylons and recover from fleet skirmishes as the Cylon fleet continues chasing him," Admiral Thorn said, reaching through a desk drawer for a file that he place on top of his desk.

"Raptor scouts recently returned from across the colonies. The devastation across the colonies has been continuing as we feared, and most of the ground forces have been systematically eliminated, either from bombing or centurions overtaking the ground forces by force. The leader of our marines was proud to say that the Cylons have met heavy resistance and only managed to make most of their progress from the loss of many colonial ground forces due to the Cylon bombings and otherwise taking on marine forces not at full strength while they tried to prepare adequate defenses under the chaos of the Cylon attack. Caprica is doing the best of the colonies at the moment, with a marine force still active and doing well against the centurion invasion forces. Unfortunately the large Cylon fleet over Caprica removes any possibility of helping the marines on the ground. In time we'll be able to aid them if we disperse the Cylon fleet more by attacking other Cylon forces and force them to send units elsewhere," Admiral Thorn said.

"I take it you have a target in mind for BSGs 36 and 98 then?" Admiral Jones said expectantly, growing eager to take the fight back against the Cylons.

"There's a Cylon task force over Tauron that BSG 98 could sufficiently engage, while patrolstars and raptors provide jamming in the area so that your attack can proceed without reinforcements for a little while. This attack will confuse the Cylons and disrupt their strategies and allocation of their fleet. I want your battle group to take out the Cylons over Tauron and make contact with forces there; perhaps gather survivors from the surface if there's time, and jump out once Cylon reinforcements come. BSG 36 will target a patrolling Cylon fleet which Intel indicates to be searching for fleet survivors and civilian ships," Admiral Thorn said.

"Yes sir. Can I request additional viper and assault raptor forces to be spread among BSGs 36 and 98 so the pilots can gain experience? The additional fighters will also cut down on the risk of being overrun by the Cylon raider forces," Admiral Jones said.

"Granted, and I agree; our pilots need the combat experience, especially the rookies. In a few hours your battle groups are to move out; allowing time for last minute ship repairs, rest for the fleet personnel, and getting the pilots gathered and ready to go," Admiral Thorn said.

"Yes sir," Admiral Jones said, saluting after getting up and quickly leaving to get his fleet ready.

BSGs 36 and 98 were brought to ready status over the course of the next few hours, with repairs on BSG 36 completed sufficiently for them to go back into combat and the fleet personnel prepared to go to war. A large number of new and older vipers were dispersed among the two battle groups, reinforcing the already present air groups.

**Tauron**

Three Cylon basestars were gathered over the area of Tauron where the last group of surviving ground forces was fighting back against the centurion invasion force. Two other basestars were spread out widely apart on the far side of the planet.

BSG 98 began jumping in over the space surrounding Tauron; Battlestars Pacifica, Saturn, Orion, and Gunstars Terpsichore, Terra, Themis, Zephyrus, Psyche, Polyxena. Battlestars Pacifica, Saturn, and Orion closed with the three Cylon basestars while Gunstars Terpsichore, Terra, and Themis provided support. Gunstars Zephyrus, Psyche, and Polyxena engaged the basestar on the farside of the planet, while raptors jumped in around the other basestar to launch nukes at the ship, quickly jumping out as the basestar blew up. Raiders launched to meet vipers, with near even forces on each side.

Battlestars Pacifica, Saturn, and Orion launched missiles and bombarded the basestars with cannon fire, while the basestars returned fire, and the Gunstars set up a flak field to reinforce the the defense of the Battlestars from missiles and raiders.

**Battlestar Pacifica CIC**

The CIC shook at numerous Cylon rounds impacted. Personnel used hand held fire extinguishers to put several small fires that broke out across the CIC.

"Helm take us in closer. I want salvo fire on the center baseship's central axis followed by several nukes launched simultaneously to go through the gap we're about to create and destroy the baseship. I want that target off my screen," Admiral Jones ordered.

The helms officer and several fleet personnel manning the CIC stations complied with admiral's orders, quickly inputting commands to complete their tasks.

Battlestar Pacifica closed to point blank range with the center baseship followed by Gunstar Terra which provided increased flak fire on multiple oncoming raiders as the colonial ships neared the Cylon flagship.

As Pacifica reached close range while continuing to deliver punishment on the baseship from anti-ship missiles and her cannons, Admiral Jones stared intently at the dradis.

"Salvo fire now, all KEW fire directed at the central axis. Nukes in the launch tubes to be rigged for a soft launch to spread out near the baseship without going hot until the last second so raiders are less likely to stop them, have the timers set to thirty seconds after launch before the nukes redirect to impact on the central axis and detonate on contact," Admiral Jones ordered.

"Aye sir," several CIC officers replied, delivering commands through their consoles and having crew around the ship make necessary adjustments on their end.

A large concentration of KEW rounds launched from Pacifica to race towards the center baseship, all the battlestar's KEWs being redirected for the immense attack, followed by several nukes launching without going hot and thereby being mostly ignored by passing Cylon raiders. Within twenty seconds the mass of KEW rounds burned several large holes in the armor and hull over the center basehship's central axis, secondary explosions rolled throughout the baseship's insides. Ten seconds later the nukes reacquired the baseship after drifting closer, going hot as they began to speed towards the vulnerable open areas covering the baseship. Raiders took out five nukes as they rushed to defend the baseship, two of the raiders launching themselves head on to collide with the nukes in order to stop them. Three nukes impacted and detonated inside the holes covering the center baseship's central axis. The combined explosion ripped apart the baseship at its seams, and secondary explosions rolled throughout the inside of the ship as the baseship split in two.

"Baseship's breaking apart sir, she's going up!" dradis officer Lieutenant Castille reported jubilantly, as the CIC crew erupted into cheers, and the baseship detonated spreading debris that impacted vipers and raiders indiscriminately.

"There's still two more baseship's here folks, let's cheer after they're gone and the fleet's not in danger of being destroyed; resume your duties," Commander Robert Sebastian said sternly.

"Bring us in near the portside baseship so we can fire on the baseship from two directions as Orion comes about on the other side of the baseship," Admiral Jones ordered.

"Yes sir," the CIC crew replied, growing serious as they went back to work. The communications officer relayed Admiral Jones orders to Orion so the two ships could coordinate.

Battlestar Saturn maneuvered closer to the other baseship alone, continuing to fire missiles and cannon fire as the baseship returned fire.

**On the far side of Tauron**

Gunstars Zephyrus, Psyche, and Polyxena continued firing their cannons and missiles towards the lone baseship, maneuvering in an everchanging circular perimeter to surround the baseship and fire at it from every side as they continued moving. Thereby, also preventing the baseship from getting a continuous solid weapons fire lock on the Gunstars as the colonial ships' continuous movement made hitting them difficult for the Cylons.

Damage continued accumulating across the entire baseship as numerous KEW rounds and anti-ship missiles found their mark on the baseship's armor. Explosions and fires ran unchecked inside the baseship as the armor began peeling away in numerous sections. The cannon and missile impacts acted as tiny cuts to the baseship, doing little damage as the stream of weapons fire rapidly moved on hitting different areas of the baseship with the Gunstars' changing position. The baseship was slowly dying from the damage accumulating ship wide, which was synonymous to over a thousand small cuts spreading damage across the ship and deepening the overall effect of the attack.

The Gunstars maneuvered away from the baseship at maximum thrust as the basestar detonated in a large explosion, unleashing a mass of debris in every direction. Each ship was hit by debris despite the best efforts of the Gunstars to get away, with numerous vipers and raiders destroyed on impact from collisions with debris. Gunstar Polyxena took heavy damage as a large piece of debris impacted on the ship, and was destroyed in moments as the ship's reactors went critical leading to a large explosion encompassing the ship.

As Gunstars Zephyrus and Psyche recovered after the debris passed them by, several raiders made their attack runs on the weakened Gunstars and dealing light damage to the Gunstars which were low on ammunition at this point. Several cannons across the Gunstars exploded from weapons fire launched by the raiders, and other cannons began launching a flak storm towards the raiders to tear them apart. Vipers re-engaged in dogfights with the remaining raiders.

**Battlestar Pacifica CIC**

"Intensify fire on the central axis now in conjunction with Orion," Admiral Jones ordered, as both Battlestars pummeled the baseship with KEW fire from two directions.

"Aye sir," the communications and KEW weapons officers replied.

Battlestars Pacifica and Orion launched a large batch of KEW fire across the central axis from two directions, quickly piling up damage and internal explosions as armor tore away in multiple areas covering the central axis. Explosions reached a critical mass inside the baseship as KEW rounds tore through the baseship's innards, and the baseship was destroyed leading to debris spreading outward.

"Get us clear of the debris, maximum thrust heading 125 carom 56. Have the flak fields re-establish a perimeter for oncoming raiders once we're clear," Admiral Jones ordered.

"Spread several anti-ship missiles across our path and destroy the largest pieces of debris so we can keep the fleet from getting hit," Commander Sebastian said.

"Aye sir," several officers in CIC replied, hurriedly working to carry out their orders.

Several large pieces of debris were destroyed by weapons fire. Smaller pieces of debris rained shrapnel across Battlestar Orion as the ship veered away.

Battlestar Saturn was about to come around for another pass on the remaining baseship when the basestar rushed forward, explosions running throughout the ship.

The basestar ran headlong straight into Gunstar Terpsichore just as the ship had moved in to support Saturn's next pass on the baseship. The baseship ran through Gunstar Terpsichore like a sword, and the two ships were destroyed as the combined explosions tore them apart, spreading debris from the two ships. Large debris from Terpsichore and the baseship impacted on Battlestar Saturn, inflicting heavy damage before the ship could maneuver to safety. Fires and hull breaches were rampant throughout Battlestar Saturn as the crew tried to maintain the ship and even just survive amidst the chaos throughout the ship; hundreds died on impact and more from fires and subsequent venting.

Vipers quickly destroyed the remaining raiders before they could bug out over the next few minutes. Lighter losses were sustained among the reinforced viper squadrons, but every loss was felt among the crew and vengefully and angrily used as fuel to continue destroying the remaining Cylons in the area.

Admiral Jones looked over the fleet reports as BSG 98 regrouped and began SAR, while the ships started repairing their sustained damage.

"Send raptors and vipers to the surface and get in contact with the remaining forces on the ground. Send DC units over to Battlestar Saturn, and have them jump out as soon as they're able; fixing their jump drive is their main priority because when the Cylons return they'll be sitting ducks," Admiral Jones ordered.

"Yes sir," the communications officer replied.

**Cylon Occupied Tauron **

**Colonial marine base Delta**

General Layla Laurence looked on at the chaos going on outside the command post, as centurions rushed toward positions held by colonial marines in seemingly unending numbers. Marines and centurions were killed left and right, with blood, bodies, and machine parts collecting on both sides. The base shook as raiders unleashed several missiles against the heavily shielded marine base which was partially covered by the mountain the base was entrenched in. Marines wielding SAMs launched several rockets and destroyed five of the offending raiders.

"Send Carter's squadron over there. The Cylons will try to cut through the hole in our lines and flank us from that spot otherwise," General Laurence ordered, pointing on a map showing the base.

"Yes ma'am," Lieutenant Janssen replied, turning away from the plot table to relay the General's orders.

"Ma'am, we're getting a feed from the colonial defense satellite," Major Branson said.

"It's probably more Cylon baseships delivering raiders and centurions. Ignore it," General Laurence said dismissively.

"No ma'am, the satellite's reading colonial warships. The warships are sending a signal out on low band radio as well from what the satellite's picking up," Major Branson said excitedly.

General Laurence stared at Major Branson in disbelief, briefly considering their options and their ever dwindling supplies.

"Get in contact with one of those ships Major," General Laurence ordered after a moment's hesitation.

**Battlestar Pacifica CIC**

"Sir, we're getting a reply from the surface. The ground forces are requesting assistance," the communications officer said.

"Send down a squadron of raptors and vipers to their location. The vipers will take out the raiders over the surface and remain on station for a CAP. Inform the commanding officer of the ground forces that they're to prepare to evacuate and take all remaining supplies. Heavy lifters will launch in a few minutes to begin evacuating them after the raiders are taken care of. Also, have raptors go over the surface outside the marine base and look for any other survivors; we don't have long so order our teams to be quick about their SAR," Admiral Jones ordered.

"Yes sir," the communications officer replied, relaying the Admiral's orders to the ground and throughout the fleet.

Battlestar Saturn prepared to jump away in the next ten minutes with the assistance of DC teams from the rest of the fleet getting the jump drives ready. The ship's sickbay quickly became overfilled as personnel were retrieved from damaged sections of the ship; many were not expected to survive.

The rest of the fleet repositioned in a defense formation in orbit above the marine base on Tauron. Several of the Gunstars prepared to jump out with Saturn with their sustained damage precluding them from being able to provide an effective defense against an oncoming Cylon fleet.

**Cylon Occupied Tauron **

**Colonial marine base Delta**

"So we're supposed to abandon the base and thereby Tauron?" General Laurence asked incredulously, even though she understood the reason why given their dwindling forces.

"Yes ma'am, Admiral Jones is ordering a full pull out of everything we have from Tauron. We can't realistically defend the colony with what we've got even if the fleet could resupply us. He's also requesting that our remaining raptors in storage be used for SAR to take all the survivors from the colony that we can," Major Branson replied.

Vipers quickly decimated the remaining raider force overhead above the base, letting no survivors escape from the carnage. Several friendly airstrikes launched from above, destroying numerous centurions on their way to the base, and picking apart the Cylon's lines. Marines from the base cheered and quickly set about hunting down the dwindling centurion forces on the ground, using rocket launchers and heavy machine guns to mow them down. A few more marines were killed in the process before the area was deemed clear of Cylon threats following patrols throughout the area seeking the remaining Cylons over the next hour.

"Send out the raptors. Have our marines get ready for pick up and pack up what little remains of our supplies in the base," General Laurence ordered unhappily, accepting defeat and the surrendering of the base.

"Aye sir," Major Branson said, relaying the General's orders to the rest of their forces, as the personnel in the base's CIC quickly began packing up everything in the room for transport.

**Several hours later**

**In Orbit of Tauron**

**Battlestar Pacifica CIC**

"Sir, the clock is winding down for our time before the Cylon's send reinforcements. Most of the remaining ground forces from the base have been brought aboard the fleet, over 2000 marines so far, and a few thousand survivors from the ground have been located and retrieved as well. The fleet's jump drives are up and running, and we're set to jump within five minutes as the last raptors and heavy lifters come aboard," Lieutenant Castille reported.

"Have the fleet maintain condition one. We're cutting this a little too close for my liking," Admiral Jones said.

"We destroyed their forces here. The chances of a few raiders escaping the battle exists, but it's pretty unlikely," Commander Sebastian said consolingly, trying to remain optimistic.

"Regardless they'll send ships to report and check on their forces here soon enough, especially if they notice the communications interference in the area our patrolstars and raptors are providing. I'm worried that even if it's a small chance, the Cylons received a raider from the battle and are amassing a fleet to hit us here while we're vulnerable. Have the patrolstars and raptors begin jumping out now; we'll follow in a minute or two so they don't need to stay now," Admiral Jones said, glaring up at the dradis console.

"Yes sir," the communications officer replied, relaying the message to the patrolstars, leading to them jumping out within moments.

"Dradis contacts!" Lieutenant Castille reported in alarm.

Seven Cylon baseships jumped into orbit over Tauron, surrounding the colonial fleet.

The baseships launched several nukes at the colonial warships upon jumping into the system. Flak fire immediately launched from the colonial fleet ships at condition one, destroying many of the Cylon missiles short of their targets. Gunstar Themis was destroyed in a large explosion as nearly a dozen nukes impacted across the ship, bypassing the ship's small field of flak fire before all the ship's weapons fully came online.

"Gunstar Themis is gone sir," Lieutenant Castille reported in disbelief.

"The last heavy lifters and the vipers are onboard sir," the communications officer said.

"All ships are to jump out now!" Admiral Jones shouted over the noise of combat as several nukes impacted Pacifica with loud noise filling the CIC as several consoles exploded and people were lifted off their feet as the shockwave coursed through Pacifica.

The remaining ships of BSG 98 jumped away from Tauron, leaving several Cylon missiles to sweep through the area where their ships had previous occupied, joined by Cylon raiders as they followed through their attack run. Raiders fled the debris spreading out from the remains of Gunstar Themis.

**Outside Red Horse Nebula**

BSG 98 jumped outside the mouth of the nebula entrance to the sanctuary inside. Battlestar Valkyrie and the rest of the defense forces guarding the entrance demanded recognition codes before allowing BSG 98 to pass.

**Battlestar Pacifica CIC**

"Sir, we're inside the protection of the nebula," Lieutenant Castille reported.

"Have the survivors from Tauron offloaded onto the ready civilian ships, and the marine force moved to the Olympia. Admiral Thorn wanted any survivors of the marine force there," Admiral Jones said.

"Sounds like Admiral Thorn might have planned another mission for them then," Commander Sebastian said, moving his hand to cover a bleeding gash on his forehead.

"Where is BSG 36?" Admiral Jones asked after looking at the fleet disposition from dradis and noticing their signatures missing.

"One moment sir," the communications officer replied, sending a message requesting information from the fleet, then continuing a minute later, "BSG 36 is overdue. If they don't show up within the hour, we have orders to rendezvous at their location to render assistance as necessary."

"Let's hope it doesn't come to that," Admiral Jones said worriedly, before turning back to the reports incoming from the fleet and making sure Battlestar Saturn was put into drydock for repairs.

**BSG 36's Location, Intercepting patrolling Cylon fleet between the colonies**

**Battlestar Neptune CIC**

The ship shook as several anti-ship missiles and nukes impacted across the heavy armor of the mercury class Battlestar.

"Report!" Commander Jacob said loudly.

"Our jump drives are still offline; the explosion near the engine room did a lot of damage and DC units are still working to get through and be able to get the jump drives operable. Gunstar Phosphor and Heavy cruiser Eros are likewise facing troubles with their jump drives," Lieutenant Carson Downing reported.

"Not exactly the short engagement we were hoping for," Colonel Ethan Bohen said angrily, looking at damage reports coming into CIC from the fleet.

"Definitely not," Commander Jacob agreed.

BSG 36 had jumped into the area surrounding four baseships, intending to launch a quick assault and jump out after inflicting maximum damage with little damage incurred to the fleet in return. A large explosion near the engine room on Neptune took out a number of engineering personnel, damaged the FTL systems, and provided a lot of debris for ship personnel to go through before being able to reach the FTL drives and get them up and running again, effectively destroying the fleet's original plan. A few hours passed as the colonial fleet was heavily engaged against the four baseship's, unable to escape quickly as planned BSG 36 re-deployed to give their ships the best chance of survival to give enough time for needed repairs to be made so the fleet could leave.

Gunstars Phosphor, Nox, Hero surrounded Battlestar Neptune and provided defensive fire support against raiders and missiles oncoming from the three baseships focusing their fire on Neptune. Heavy cruisers Echo, Eros, and Amor were engaged with the fourth baseship away from the rest of the fleet.

Heavy cruisers Echo, Eros, and Amor maneuvered closer to the damaged baseship, breaking their pattern of evasive maneuvers so the baseship couldn't focus weapons fire on them. The cruisers increased their KEW fire on the baseship, dealing heavy damage as the baseship's armor was ripped off in several sections, with a number of cannons and missile launchers destroyed in the process. Continuous KEW fire on the already heavily damaged baseship after hours of fighting quickly reached deep inside the ship, igniting the tylium lines and destroying the baseship in a fiery explosion.

"The fourth baseship's been destroyed sir," Lieutenant Downing reported.

"Order the cruisers to engage the baseship on the rear of the Cylon formation," Commander Jacob said.

"Perhaps, we should consider going all in now Admiral? Since we can't jump out still and we're starting to accumulate as much damage as the Cylons…" Colonel Bohen said, trailing off.

"Agreed. We'll use our own nukes now. Have the viper squadrons supporting us against the Cylon missiles re-engage with the raiders fully with raptors equipped with anti-ship dispersal units as support to cut down the enemy fighter force. Maneuver the Neptune to engage the other two baseships with our Gunstars maintaining supportive defensive fire," Commander Jacob ordered.

"Yes sir," the communications officer replied, sending the Commander's orders throughout the fleet to begin changing the fleet's formation.

Vipers disengaged from their defensive formation surrounding Neptune and the Gunstars, fully engaging the groups of raiders making attack runs on the colonial capital ships. The mass of raiders previously standing guard over the baseships, besides a few wings making attack runs here and there, disengaged from their own defensive formations around their baseships after seeing the change in viper formations, and began engaging in dogfights with the viper squadrons.

Battlestar Neptune approached the two nearest baseships, getting closer and focusing her KEWs on each ship, with Gunstars Phosphor, Nox, and Hero providing continued defensive fire support. The heavy cruisers engaged the other baseship, forcing the baseship to focus on them and cutting down the firepower engaging Neptune. Heavy damage began accumulating on each ship in both fleets as the fleets engaged in close quarters combat with their fighters no longer providing additional defensive fire support.

"Sir, our support ships report they're running low on ammunition," the communications officer reported worriedly.

"Tell them to keep firing regardless; we need to push the Cylons back and force them to jump out or risk destruction. If need be, a jump capable ship can leave the battlefield when their weapons stores are at 0% capacity," Commander Jacob said, holding on tightly to the CIC plot table as the ship shook from weapons fire.

"Baseship's are maneuvering to safeguard their central axis. Reading heavy damage across the spires on each of their ships," Colonel Bohen said.

"Salvo fire and launch HE rounds across each spire on the baseships now. Let's cripple their offensive capability," Commander Jacob ordered.

"Firing now sir," one of the weapons officers reported from his station in CIC.

Heavy concentrations of KEW cannon fire and high explosive rounds found their mark across the two offending baseships in Neptune's path. Three of the spires forming the baseship's star pattern were ripped off each of the baseships, with heavy damage spreading elsewhere, and leaving the baseships with far fewer working missile launchers and cannons across the baseships.

Heavy cruisers Echo, Eros, and Amor heavily shelled the third baseship once in range. The baseship maneuvered to engage them fully, leaving Neptune and its protecting Gunstars with one fewer adversary. As damage accumulated across the baseship, the baseship returned fire focusing on the Heavy cruiser Eros.

A nuke passed through the cruiser's heavy defensive screen, impacting atop the weakened armor covering the center of the ship. The detonation wreaked havoc to the ship's hull and numerous secondary explosions rolled outward inside the ship, spreading breaches opening the ship to space and unleashing a stream of fire that quickly spread before DC units could do anything to stop it. A minute later the tylium lines were breached, setting the entire ship aflame within seconds and the accumulating fiery inferno overtook the cruiser until the ship gave way in a large explosion. Debris streamed outward, quickly mowing through vipers and raiders in the way without even slowing down.

The baseship jumped out following a large piece of debris impacting and inflicting damage across the ship.

"Have the cruisers form up on us. I want concentrated fire on each baseship and a follow up full out nuke strike. Let's end this quickly," Commander Jacob ordered.

Battlestar Neptune delivered a full broadside of KEW fire on each baseship, aided by the Gunstars using their heavy KEWs followed by the heavy cruisers once they realigned with the fleet. The two baseships withered under heavy fire from the colonial ships, heavy damage accumulating with numerous systems aboard the ships shutting down.

Raiders disengaging from dogfights were quickly cut down by vipers, with an increasing ratio of vipers to raiders. The handful of raiders successfully disengaging could do little to stop the large missile launch from the colonial fleet; dozens of anti-ship missiles mixed in with a large number of nukes quickly sped toward the baseships. Several raiders launched themselves to collide with the missiles, barely denting the array of missiles, with other anti-ship missiles taken out by defensive fire. Six nukes impacted across each baseship, obliterating both ships within seconds as fiery explosions consumed everything until nothing was left. Vipers veered away from the remaining offshoot of debris heading their way.

The remaining raiders were quickly picked off by vipers within the next few minutes, a few survivors managing to jump out.

An explosion onboard Gunstar Phosphor ended the jubilation of the fleet's crew in cheering for victory. A raider crashing headlong into the weakened structure supports inside the Gunstar caused a debilitating explosion engulfing the ship in moments, taking the ship with all hands.

Getting past his own shock at the fleet's loss, Commander Jacob refocused the fleet's efforts to execute SAR and get their ships ready to jump out.

Just as Neptune's FTL was online and the fleet began jumping out, a large Cylon fleet jumped into the area. Battlestar Neptune rejoined her fleet on the other side of the jump before the oncoming raiders and baseships could reach effective engagement range.

**Red Horse Nebula**

**Battlestar Pacifica CIC**

Admiral Jones' brief relief at seeing the ships of BSG 36 return in one piece before he'd have to send his fleet out to check on them was cut short as he noticed the damage clear on each ship and the missing designations from dradis of the ships that didn't make it home.

"Coordinate with Eternity's docks and BSG 36 to get the most damaged ships in drydock as soon as possible, and see about resupply for the fleet," Admiral Jones ordered.

"Yes sir," the communications officer replied, busily setting to work.

"Admiral Thorn is requesting our presence on Olympia," Commander Sebastian said as he looked through incoming reports to Pacifica.

"Very well. We'll leave once a raptor's prepped. Let's see about getting our own resupply and repairs going on double time in the meanwhile," Admiral Jones replied shortly.

**Cylon Space, Command Baseship**

"I want to know how the hell they were able to accomplish this much damage and why BSGs 98 and 36 haven't been completely eliminated!" Cavil shouted.

"They took us by surprise with their separate attacks. We couldn't have known; risking their ships against greater numbers of baseships should have been good enough reason to assume they wouldn't target the occupied colonies," a number four Simon said.

"Even with the losses we sustained, they took significant damage themselves," a number three model called Serena said.

"Several of their support ships were destroyed, and two Battlestars received heavy damage," an Aaron Doral number five model interjected.

"That doesn't change the fact that they engaged a successful surprise attack and inflicted heavy losses on our side. And it seems no more of our infiltrators were aboard their ships," a number one model said snidely.

"Most of our brothers and sisters in their battle groups were eliminated on the day of the attacks that's true, but don't forget that it was the fruit of their labors which kept BSG 36 from enacting their plans with the bomb crippling their jump capabilities," a number six model called Iliana said.

"Speaking of which, why weren't there more infiltrators there to begin with?" the number one model replied, redirecting the topic.

"You know well that BSG 98 had no infiltrators because they left for their mission before we were spread throughout the colonies. We assumed they would have been quickly eliminated by a large fleet, with several of their ships carrying the CNP anyway; they never made it to the projected jump site on the day of the attacks so they survived. Most of our brothers and sisters were lost among BSG 36 in the fighting, with more than sufficient numbers to begin with so don't even start on that, and assumedly the rest must've been placed elsewhere wherever the colonial remnants are hiding to launch their attacks from. Unless they found a hiding place like the gas cloud surrounding Ragnar like Adama did, in which case we may not see our brothers and sisters from there again," number six Iliana replied.

"In any event, this recent development changes our plans in colonial space. Can we all agree that a change must be made in defensive forces to prevent a similar attack from occurring?" a number two said.

"We agree," a number four said.

"As do the sixes and eights," Iliana said, looking at her fellow sisters and the eights who nodded their approval.

"Changing our fleet compositions across occupied territory is merited, we agree," a number five Doral said.

"As if debate was needed to begin providing a larger defense was needed. More importantly, we need to step up our search for the colonials to find the remnants of their fleet and keep any of them from regrouping together and becoming a larger thorn in our side," a number one Cavil said.

"We agree. And increasing raider search parties is necessary to keep up searching for the colonials while our baseships tighten up our defenses," a number three model Anabel said.

"How goes our planetary occupations over the colonies?" a number one model asked.

"Most of their ground forces have fallen, with resistance dwindling as more centurions are being brought in to overwhelm the under armed marine forces on the ground. Without resupply, the marines would eventually be taken out anyway, but increasing centurion forces are eliminating them much quicker now," a number five model reported.

"Caprica is providing the only major resistance left. Most of the marine forces left elsewhere will quickly be overwhelmed soon enough, and any trying to flee can be hunted down easily enough. The colonial fleet's efforts at Tauron removed the last resistance there as well, which only helps us as it is: centurions will have the remaining survivors on the ground taken care of and the necessary groups taken for experiments," a number three said.

"More than enough survivors will be collected for our testing purposes," a number four said, smiling in content with a sufficient supply for his work being made available as more humans would soon be captured.

"Yes, yes, we all know your eagerness to do your work," a number six called Kathy said disgustedly.

"What of the other experiment?" a number three asked.

"So far none of the captured humans in the experiment to procreate with humans have met with success. Several have been removed from the equation given their uselessness. A new approach may be required, and several of our sisters are coming up with a plan to accomplish our goal, as well as finding other more suitable participants for the experiment," a number eight said.

"Including the pilot from Galactica we located on Caprica, this 'Helo' Agathon?" a number one Cavil said, amused at the irony of one of Adama's own men possibly being used to solve their reproduction issues.

"Yes, and when we've got everything ready and the details sorted the experiment will continue, hopefully with the conclusion we're all hoping for," a number eight said, earning a dirty look from a number four who was unhappy at the prospect of his work not providing the sought for solution to the Cylon's reproduction issues.

"In the meantime, word is that John's fleet is continuing their harassment of Adama's fleet every thirty-three minutes," a number three called Larissa said.

"Indeed. Galactica's fleet is showing signs of stress already and their lack of rest will eventually lead to their destruction," a number one said.

"Back to our efforts here; raiders recently found more civilian ships fleeing to the outskirts of colonial space, several on sublight speed. With inner space becoming secure after being checked, we can move our patrolling raiders back to defending our fleets or searching specifically for the colonial remnants, while a smaller contingent continues securing the outer rim towards deep space for whatever remaining civilian ships are out there," a number five said, redirecting conversation to more local issues.

"We agree. Not much point having raiders patrolling inner space once they've finished checking the area for colonials. The increased raiders can supplement our other efforts. I'd also suggest increased raider production to give us more units for possible losses and to increase our offensive capabilities," a number three called Marina said.

"We agree, it's only logical in order to further our efforts," a number five replied.

"My line agrees as well," a number four said shortly.

"Yes, yes, my line agrees and with a majority we can move on," a number one said impatiently.

**Red Horse Nebula**

**Olympia Station, Admiral Thorn's quarters**

Admiral Jones, Commander Sebastian, Commander Jacob, and General Laurence were seated before Admiral Thorn. Admiral Thorn promised the battlegroup commanders that their respective units would receive priority in maintenance and resupply.

"I wish it were under better circumstances that we were meeting under, but necessity calls for an active and unconventional approach to meet the conditions the colonies are under with Cylon occupation and invasion," Admiral Thorn said.

"Recent reports mentioned the staggering losses our forces were falling under in the colonies," Admiral Jones said questioningly, rubbing his head from stress.

"Correct. Reports have shown that aside from Caprica all resistance forces are collapsing across the colonies. Granted we grabbed a number of marine forces off Tauron, Picon, and Canceron, as well as the last marine forces from our latest mission at Tauron, but it wouldn't have mattered if those forces were there or not. Approximately 100,000 centurions are projected as landing at and occupying the colonies, with possibly more coming over time," Admiral Thorn said.

"With respect sir, how can we take on those kind of numbers in any scenario? The Cylons are maintaining air superiority and aim to keep it for the foreseeable future, and we'd take heavy losses in a straight up engagement with little chance of success," Commander Sebastian said imploringly.

General Laurence looked on in silence, staring at Admiral Thorn intently as she waited for him to answer the question she very much wanted herself given that her forces would likely play a large role in whatever Admiral Thorn might have planned.

"The sad fact is that you're right Commander, we can't stand against the Cylons in a straight up engagement as is, and even if we could force the Cylons off one of the colonies by destroying their baseships in orbit, it wouldn't take long for reinforcements to come and take out our forces. No, our only option is to use other tactics which are less conventional and luckily thereby unpredictable, in order to combat the Cylons. I've called you here to discuss a combined large scale ground and space attack on Cylon positions," Admiral Thorn said.

"I assume then that BSG 36 and 98 will form the bulk of the forces involved in this operation you're planning admiral?" Admiral Jones asked.

"Yes, admiral. To that end, recent events and the scale of the option require that BSG 36 and 98 combine as a single battle group. Commander Jacob, I am placing you and the personnel in the remains of BSG 36 under Admiral Jones' command to reinforce BSG 98," Admiral Thorn said.

Commander Jacob was silent for a moment before replying, unhappy with what Admiral Thorn was saying even if he had been expecting it, "Yes sir."

"Intel indicates that the Cylons are changing their fleet compositions following the incursion at Tauron, likely trying to prevent something similar, and baseships guarding the colonies have increased in numbers. Because of this, the Cylons will think they are safe. They'll be looking for assaults on their other positions believing we wouldn't attack the occupying forces at the colonies; so we're going to do exactly what they think we won't do. We are going to attack several of the Cylon positions over the colonies," Admiral Thorn said.

"Surely, the Cylons have large enough numbers to prevent our forces from succeeding at one of the colonies, let alone more than one?" Commander Sebastian said questioningly.

"Which takes us back to using less conventional tactics. R&amp;D has been working on a project which could be useful in the operation and help to even the playing field," Admiral Thorn said, taking a deep breath before continuing, "General I know you're wondering how your forces fit in. I want ground forces to be dropped over each colony, and unfortunately they are not primarily to engage the Cylons but to get as many survivors as they can out of the open areas on the colonies and hidden. Bunkers from the first war, going to the mountains, and other options which I'm sure you have some ideas for can provide safety to civilians and whatever marine forces are left in hiding. This is a long term strategy General; after the fleet Stryker is leading arrives I'm sure more plans to evacuate survivors from the colonies will be undertaken, and this plan will ensure that a great deal of survivors can last as long as it takes before we can get them off the colonies."

"Understood sir. I assume there's a plan to get my marines where we need to go safely?" General Laurence asked stoically, unhappy with not engaging the Cylons but ready to take part in a mission derailing their plans.

"The exact details will be refined and put in motion when the operation is ready to begin. I trust you'll get the marine forces ready in the mean time?" Admiral Thorn asked, to which General Laurence nodded, and he continued, "your marines will be supplemented by several thousand marine personnel we retrieved from other bases after the Cylon attack. This operation should be a good thing for them as something important to do; General Sheppard tells me that they're going crazy cooped up in ships and are eager to take action in the war. We can use the room freed up with men and equipment going planetside on the colonies to take on more survivors."

"We certainly have enough civilian ships outside. It should be amusing to deal with whining from the civilians when we move them over among ships to free up space, and allow transports. How many are we expecting to take on with the space we have available?" Commander Jacob said.

"As many as we can from this operation. I'm hopeful to save at least a few hundred thousand in the mean time before Stryker arrives, and if we can get more ships or otherwise take on more survivors once he's here then we'll look at getting as many as we can before the trip to Avalon. Unity and Eternity can take on tens of thousands of survivors, and we can see about making room as needed," Admiral Thorn said determinedly.

"Admiral Jones, there are options in what we are planning to even the playing field and get through the Cylons over multiple colonies. However, your forces will need to be ready for an engagement with a number of Cylon baseships and raiders as necessary, and be ready to hold the line as necessary while operations commence. Jamming and other measures will keep Cylon reinforcements back for a while, but there's no absolute guarantee of safety even then," Admiral Thorn said.

"The personnel under my leadership are very competent Admiral, and we can take on a great deal that the Cylons throw at us, but there are limits. For as large an operation as you're describing, more forces may be necessary," Admiral Jones said.

"You'll have them Admiral. Several ships are in the process of being repaired and others can't be in fighting shape for some time, but we can give you support. R&amp;D have also come up with measures to keep the Cylons guessing about our forces as well," Admiral Thorn said.

"Now, I'll leave you to the preparations you need to make for the operation. Dismissed," Admiral Thorn said.

"Sir," Admiral Jones, Commanders Jacob and Sebastian, and General Laurence said as they saluted and left Admiral Thorn's quarters.

Commander Corgon entered Admiral Thorn's quarters once he and Admiral Thorn were alone moments later.

"Sir, heavy lifters and other recovery ships have returned with salvageable material, supplies, and a few more survivors from ship wrecks left behind from the attacks across the star system. The materials should help in repair work, and the rescued mining ships have begun helping our current work within the asteroid field for the supplies we need, particularly in the long term. Several of the Battlestars and other ships that were salvageable have been moved, assumedly by the Cylons keeping them out of colonial hands," Commander Corgon said.

"Unless someone else is out there," Admiral Thorn said, pausing to consider what he just said briefly before continuing, "how are we coming on breaking the Cylons' frequencies to get a hold of their communications? And is Banshee ready for her mission?"

"R&amp;D is working overtime on getting through the Cylon communications as you requested sir; progress is being made, but it appears it could be days or even a few weeks to break their encryptions, if we're lucky. Banshee is prepped and set to launch later today for her survey into Cylon space; Colonel Marciel is quite clear on the need for silent running to find out as much as possible about Cylon space before Operation Black Arrow can commence," Commander Corgon said.

"Very well. I suppose it can't be helped," Admiral Thorn said unhappily.

"Also, we're coordinating additional teams of raptors to find more civilian ships; so far they've found quite a few, as well as the remains raiders have left behind. Escortstars will carry out SAR teams to the outer rim and deep space shortly," Commander Corgon said.

"I expect they'll be more likely to run into Cylons when they get there; the Cylons will be out in concentrated force just like us," Admiral Thorn said sighing deeply before continuing, "if that's all for now, I'd suggest we get some rest; a lot is on our plate ahead."

"Aye sir," Commander Corgon said briefly saluting, then exiting the Admiral's quarters.


	3. 1x03 Operation Strikeback

**Operation Strikeback - Covert Insertion  
**

**Day 11 Since the Fall**

**0600 hours**

Five elint ships, nine patrolstars, and ten gunstars were under silent running around the colonies, connecting the hundreds of satellites still orbiting the colonies and putting into place more jamming satellites.

**Day 11 Since the Fall**

**1100 hours**

**Olympia Station, Admiral's Quarters**

Admiral Thorn sat in his plushy chair quietly sipping a cup of ambrosia as he mulled over recent events and the fast approaching mission with the utmost importance to the survival of the people trapped on the colonies. Admiral Thorn was broken from his revere as his hatch door abruptly opened, Commander Corgon quickly walking in and collapsing into the chair opposite the Admiral as the marines guarding the Admiral's quarters shut the hatch.

Commander Corgon took a moment to compose himself as he wiped away beads of sweat running down his face and caught his haggard breath.

Admiral Thorn eyed the Commander in amusement, before asking with a hint of trepidation in his voice, "I suppose there's a good reason you look like you ran all the way here?"

"Yes sir. A breakthrough in breaking through the encryption the Cylons use in their communications brought about some revelations I thought you might want to know right away," Commander Corgon said, his excitement beginning to show once more as he recovered from his quick jaunt to brief the Admiral as quickly as possible.

"I see. I appreciate the enthusiasm," Admiral Thorn said chuckling, relaxing slightly as thoughts of possible bad news were replaced in his head with the image of Commander Corgon running through the halls at breakneck speed, "progress on the Cylons communiques is definitely great to hear. What do we have?"

"Unfortunately several messages appear dated by a few days. However, the Cylon communiques went over developments among the surviving colonial forces. Besides what they knew of BSGs 36 and 89 and Galactica's fleet, it appears that the Cylons know of several groups of survivors fleeing the colonies! Not all of the names were decrypted, but an educated guess can be made for several based on from fleet records. Six battlestars and several gunstars and other support ships are leading several civilian ships in different groups spreading out in different directions leading away from the colonies. Unfortunately they're mostly fragmented, with only a couple of the ships in the same group, rather than together where they'd be stronger, and they've received varying degrees of damage. Several other ships were listed as unconfirmed as destroyed and possibly still around and kicking; including several of our ships here, a couple ships we know or think were destroyed, and Battlestar Pegasus, sir," Commander Corgon said.

Admiral Thorn contemplated Commander Corgon's report silently, weighing the possibility of the information being accurate, and considering the related inferences to draw from the news.

"Sadly given that some of the information is already days old, it's possible that some if not all of those units, along with anyone they protected, have been taken out by the Cylons. We won't be able to support them in any event without information about their location. Cain and Pegasus making it is a possibility, not overly shocking now that I think of it, though reports had the ship lost with the Scorpion Shipyards," Admiral Thorn said.

"Yes sir. However, we might have information on their location through decrypting the communiques further, and our scouts may also pick them up. Raptors on the outer rim to deep space away from the colonies have after all found several civilian ships before raiders; it's always possible they'll come across these ships or others," Commander Corgon said hopefully, refusing to give up on the chance of more survivors.

"We can hope. In the meantime is everything ready to go for the operation?" Admiral Thorn asked.

"All preparations are complete, and all units are moving into position. Everything should be good to go within the hour as the operation starts," Commander Corgon said.

"So very many things can go wrong. Let's hope for their safe return," Admiral Thorn said.

"Yes sir. Here are the latest updates for the fleet. I'll leave you to it," Commander Corgon said deciding to go back to work and making sure the new information of survivors wasn't wasted, knowing the Admiral more than anyone needed more good news to keep up morale. Putting a file he'd been carrying down on the Admiral's desk, Commander Corgon swiftly walked out of the Admiral's quarters.

"Good luck Admiral Jones," Admiral Thorn said quietly before picking up the file and leafing through the reports inside.

**Day 11 Since the Fall**

**1200 hours**

**Cyrannus; Cylon Occupied Scorpia, Tauron, Virgon, Aquaria, Libra, Canceron, Gemenon, Leonis, and Sagittaron**

Several basestars orbited space above each colonial planet, with hundreds of raiders on patrol. The collective Cylon forces barely registered a development occurring at each colony as the remaining orbiting satellites began emitting a static interference which appeared to the sensors of the Cylons as intense solar radiation and thereby as a natural phenomenon assumed to end quickly the Cylons paid no mind to the brief interruption among their sensors. The range of the Cylons' sensors diminished considerably.

After a couple of minutes the Cylons began receiving an emergency distress call on a colonial frequency leading to the edge of the Helios alpha system. Several baseships at each colony quickly picked up their raiders and jumped out to the source of the transmission, which unfortunately for the Cylons they did so without coordinating among each colony's occupying fleet – weakening their overall fleet structure at each affected colonial world.

Within moments of the baseships exiting orbit of the colonies, several satellites in place between the colonies activated, beginning jamming which impeded the Cylons' ability to communicate among or outside the affected colonies.

With much of the sensors on the ships of the Cylon fleet blinded and their ability to communicate cut off, the colonial fleet began enacting their operations.

Over 400 civilian ships jumped into the atmosphere at each colony, quickly descending to the ground in a fiery red haze as they made it through the atmosphere. Hundreds of vipers undocked from the civilian ships and immediately began launching towards raiders the skies of each colony, with several vipers staying with the civilian ships to fly a CAP as they landed on the surface. Raptors jumped into the skies covering each colony, rapidly descending and being formed up with escort vipers as they went on a bombing run against the front lines of centurions across the colonies. High explosive ammunition, missiles, and even a few low yield nukes were dropped on the groups of centurions, decimating the Cylons on the ground, even as many survivors quickly began evading the incoming ordinance as they separated from being grouped together. Even so, the colonials' intention was met as the centurions began retreating to safety, leaving the areas containing human survivors they were advancing on alone. Marines began disembarking from the civilian ships they arrived in, heading out to find survivors.

**Virgon**

General Laurence led her escorting marines forward as they neared their destination in the Ida mountain range.

"Alright, have the heavy lifters and construction units start here. This location's ideal. Red team on me, the rest guards this position," General Laurence ordered.

"Yes sir," the marines replied, quickly following the general's orders.

Several small craft from the civilian ships reached the general's chosen location with construction units immediately beginning to bore into the ground of the mountain with heavy equipment. As was likewise happening on the other landed on colonies, several picked out remote locations had ferried over construction units beginning the process of creating underground bases, with enough room planned for tens of thousands to stay safely inside, and heavy layers of metal and support structures put in place inside to prevent cave-ins once the inside area was dug through. Each location was on the outskirts of colonial society and chosen due to the Cylon's pattern of advancement to find survivors in the colonies, with each location believed to have several weeks/months before discovery and thereby safe for construction to be completed so when the Cylons finally came there'd be nothing out of place and the survivors inside would be safe. Another advantage to the chosen locations was that they'd be easy and quick to evac from when the time came, allowing any evacuation plan to quickly land transports and take away everything in a short time period. Several other areas were picked out for marines to secure and start bringing survivors to; old underground bunkers, first cylon war evacuation areas, and the like – as many safe places to bring survivors to as possible.

General Laurence arrived at the Cylon frontline where survivors were rushing to escape, after a few minutes on a transport with red team.

"Seems not all of the centurions took the hint that they're not welcome. Let's make sure the message is really nailed into their thick metal skulls," General Laurence said savagely, readying her own rifle to take aim on the Cylons.

"Yes sir," several marines said brightly, taking aim and firing on the advancing centurions. Several centurions fell to the ground in a heap as high explosive rounds tore through their heads.

"General, marines report survivors are being ferried to the transports. Estimates two to three hours to fill the civilian ships up," Major Branson reported, trying to get the General's attention.

"Very well. The Admiral expected as much. Have other marines or fleet personnel been located?" General Laurence asked nonchalantly, as she worked to reload her rifle with high explosive rounds.

"A few sir. Admiral Thorn was correct that more survivors were already underground and made it out given the time Nagala's fleet gave Virgon to evacuate while the fleet battled the Cylons," Major Branson said happily.

"Good. Have the marines and any volunteering fleet personnel begin helping with the evacuation, construction, and other efforts. Make sure they're aware that if they chose to do so they'll be stuck on this rock with the rest of us until rescue comes, likely a long time from now," General Laurence said, snorting in amusement and derision.

"Yes ma'am. I'll get back to the command base and coordinate things to make sure it all goes smoothly. I will send you updates over the radio as we get near the deadline," Major Branson said, then got up and jogged back to the command structure in one of the surviving marine bases.

**Day 11 Since the Fall**

**1215 hours**

**Cyrannus; Cylon Occupied Scorpia, Tauron, Virgon, Aquaria, Libra, Canceron, Gemenon, Leonis, and Sagittaron**

As marine forces began their missions on the ground with survivors being brought back to the civilian ships, the other parts of the colonial operation were set in motion.

Over several of the targeted colonies, R&amp;D's latest project was used as unmanned raptors and other small craft jumped over the Cylon occupied space; immediately unleashing a huge EMP wave from all the prototype weapon stores R&amp;D had managed to create for use in the mission. Numerous raiders and the baseships began drifting aimlessly as power was lost onboard the ships. Several raiders exploded as circuitry created fires and detonations from power surges, with similar damage accumulating onboard several of the baseships. Unfortunately the Cylon ships would recover within an estimated few hours as the prototypes were still being tested and not powerful enough to do more; even so the evacuations on affected colonies were expected to go smoothly while the Cylons recovered and tried to get back online.

Over space of Virgon, Canceron, and Leonis, colonial fleet ships began jumping into space over the colonies, within detection range of the Cylon fleets stationed there which began rushing towards the offending colonials. The Cylons' sensors were still being disrupted, and so they couldn't get an exact lock on the colonial fleets' numbers.

**Edge of Helios Alpha system**

**Cylon fleet units sent to investigate distress call**

The Cylon fleet was in disarray as fires and decompressions rolled throughout many of the baseships, with many ruins of raiders left behind as nothing but debris floating outside the baseships. More damage accumulated on the Cylon fleet as the Cylon ships trying to get to a safe distance were hit by more mines. Hundreds of mines composed of highly explosive materials and even some nuclear warheads threatened the ships in the Cylon fleet, as shrapnel and large detonations were sure to follow an encounter with the deadly weapons. The Cylons quickly realized they'd been led into a trap by the distress call, where they'd arrived expecting easy prey and only finding the array of mines which highly damaged their fleet. Rather than being concentrated to destroy several ships at once, the mines were laid out in great amounts and separated to focus damage on as many of the Cylon forces as possible, and given the array of mines spread out the Cylons' escape was time consuming as they tried to find a safe position to leave the area even as more mines would find their way to hit their ships in the mdist of the Cylons' efforts.

"Get us the hell out of here!" a Cavil started yelling angrily, uncaring for the damage being done to the ships as long as the fleet escaped as soon as possible.

"It will take time to evade the minefield and get out of here. Simply trying to FTL out appears to attract the mines to attack a ship automatically as we learned earlier when baseship delta five tried that. Finding a safe path out on sublight speed is the only way to handle this," a number four said calmly.

"Ironic how the colonials used our own tactic of the distress call to lure ships into a trap against us," a Leoben said, barely containing his amusement and a straight face at their precarious situation.

"This was clearly part of a larger plan. Why else are we not seeing colonial forces while we're defenseless?" a number three model called Anabel said.

"I suppose we'll have a clear answer when we're out of here. Given that it's going to take a while to clear the area, whatever their plan is may already be done by then," a number six said.

"Launch missiles at the mines and we'll be out of here in minutes," a number one said dismissively.

"And what, hope for the best? Never mind the chances of a chain reaction starting which could further the damage to the entire fleet. No, let's just blow our way out of this and everything will be fine. Typical plan from a one," a number six called Iliana said sarcastically.

"The longer we're in here, the more damage the colonials could be doing. We'll resurrect and repair any damage incurred, so there's no reason not to simply blow our way out of here and be done with it," the number one cavil said arrogantly, confident in their abilities to outclass the humans.

"Losing more baseships when we can choose not to is not an option. The fours see the only logical course of action is to continue to weave our way out," a number four said with finality.

"I think I speak for everyone with a brain in saying of course we agree," Iliana said with a sense of surety, looking to the other models besides one who nodded their assent.

"By your command," Cavil said angrily and sarcastically, gritting his teeth together.

**Virgon**

The colonial fleet grouped tightly together, waiting for the Cylon baseships with escorting raiders to go to them. The colonial fleet's combined mass and the disruption in their sensors led the Cylons to believe four Battlestars were facing their four baseships. In actuality, Heavy cruisers Javelin, Adder, Echo, and Amor were formed up close together to mimic two Jupiter class Battlestars. Battlestars Minerva and Hades were alongside the cruisers, the lights on their flight pods blacked out, along with other efforts to keep their identity from the Cylons secret.

The colonial fleet fired their KEWs and long distance missiles at the Cylon baseships, putting up a defensive front against the Cylons to keep them at arm's length rather than a full out assault. The Cylons launched missiles from afar as they tried to close distance with the colonial fleet.

**Leonis **

Battlestars Pacifica, Saturn, and Concordia engaged the four Cylon Baseships above Leonis. Each fleet shelled the other with their KEWs and missile launches. Vipers and raiders dueled it out in various dogfights in the space between the two fleets.

**Canceron**

Battlestars Neptune and Orion were surrounded by Gunstars Terra, Zephyrus, Psyche, Nox, Hero, Avenger, Hale, Striker, and Stargazer. The four baseships launched massive waves of missiles to try and overwhelm the impressive defensive wall of flak fire the colonial fleet ships began putting out from their formation. Maintaining their distance to keep the colonial ships from combining their firepower to attack them, the four baseships continued launching missile after missile at the colonial ships. The mass majority of the Cylon raiders were directed forward to meet the vipers near the colonial fleet and provide attack runs on their ships, while keeping a handle on the limited missile launches from the colonial ships directed at the baseships.

After thirty minutes of bombardment from the Cylons, Battlestar Orion appeared to jump out after a nuke impacted atop the ship's topside armor. The baseships surged forward with the hole in the colonials lines, eager to take advantage of the colonials' misfortune. The surprise was on the Cylons as Battlestar Orion jumped behind the Cylon formation, unleashing a stream of KEW fire, missiles, and nukes towards the baseships.

Lacking adequate point defense and the raider force necessary to defend their ships from the missile launch as they were far forward towards the colonial fleet, the baseships took heavy damage as multiple unimpeded anti-ship missiles and nukes impacted across the baseships.

A majority of Orion's anti-ship missiles and nuclear warheads quickly launched towards the baseships, taking advantage of the baseships' weakness. Two baseships exploded as numerous detonations went off inside each ship from the numerous weapons fire impacting the baseships.

The two remaining baseships wasted no time as they immediately rushed forward towards Neptune and the supporting Gunstars, intending to get closer to their raiders and redeploy their defenses. Numerous missiles and nukes continued launching from the baseships.

Gunstar Hero exploded as several nukes got past the flak screen and impacted the ship.

Battlestar Orion approached the baseships from behind, continuing its vicious assault with KEW fire on one of the baseships. Heavy damage accumulated quickly, with one of the baseship's spires coming apart and blowing away from the ship.

The other baseship began recollecting its raiders. After a minute the baseship jumped out, followed by the other raiders engaging the vipers, a few being destroyed while they tried to flee.

The heavily damaged baseship surged forward towards the colonial ships, ignoring several missile and cannon fire impacts. Then, like a sword the baseship speared straight through Gunstar Zephyrus, the ensuing explosion destroying both ships and unleashing a stream of debris towards the close formation of colonial ships. Gunstar Psyche exploded moments later after failing to evade large pieces of debris from hitting the ship head on. The other Gunstars and Battlestar Neptune took varying amounts of damage as the debris impacted on their armor.

**Leonis**

One of the baseships jumped out after heavy damage accumulated aboard from Concordia and Saturn's combined weapons fire.

Two of the baseships joined in an assault on Concordia, unleashing a large wave of missiles. Nearby vipers converged on the missiles along with raptors firing drones and missiles in response, taking out a lot of the Cylon missiles. The remainder impacted all across Concordia. A few hundred casualties shortly amounted aboard the ship as fires and hull breaches broke out on over a dozen sections of the ship. Numerous weapons platforms and systems were destroyed and the primary energizer was knocked offline, cutting down Concordia's offensive and defensive capabilities considerably.

A high speed pass by Pacifica quickly eliminated the third baseship as salvo fire impacting along the central axis was followed up seconds later by nukes creeping straight inside the ship and detonating, the explosion consuming the baseship whole.

Battlestar Saturn cut off the two remaining baseships, taking heavy fire intended for Concordia and receiving damage in multiple sections as a result. Return was quickly launched from Saturn, ripping through the baseship's spires and accumulating damage across the baseships in other areas from anti-ship missile impacts.

As Pacifica maneuvered to within firing range, forming up with Saturn as Concordia began to direct her limited remaining weaponry to take aim on the baseships, the two baseships jumped out of the battlefield. Raiders quickly followed, vipers chasing down several even as a couple raiders attempted one last strafing run on the Battlestars.

**Virgon**

A nuclear strike from a pair of raptors led to one of the baseships exploding in the cylon formation, spreading debris among everything in the area and causing damage to their ships, raiders, and a few vipers in the area.

In spite of damage across the opposing Battlestars dealt from afar for over thirty minutes, the fleets remaining deadlocked in close formation and firing from long distance, the Cylons now thought they were outnumbered. Still believing the ruse, to them it was four Battlestars against their three baseships. Seeing the advantage being on the colonials' side providing a need to escape and regroup, and hoping to quickly gather more baseships to come back in force, the remaining baseships jumped out of Virgon space, followed by the remaining raiders within moments.

**Forty-five minutes later**

Following the priority evacuations on Virgon, Leonis, and Canceron finishing, specified ships from the colonial fleet jumped to space over Virgon. The remaining evacuations on the other colonies continued and began finishing up, taking advantage of the continued powerlessness from the baseships in space.

Battlestars Pacifica, Neptune, Saturn, and Orion, Heavy cruisers Echo and Amor, and Gunstars Terra and Nox were in formation above Virgon waiting for the Cylons. Before long the Cylons returned as expected, and the surprise was on them as they found a much different fleet awaiting them than they expected. Six baseships surged towards the colonial fleet.

Three baseships aligned against Pacifica and Neptune, staying at a long distance and just bombarding the two heavy Battlestars. Two baseships engaged Saturn and Orion separately. The remaining baseship engaged and focused on Heavy cruiser Echo, firing missiles from afar at Amor merely to keep the cruiser busy. A couple squadrons of raiders left the vipers behind and set out to engage the Gunstars.

Pacifica and Neptune maintained a heavy defense line of flak fire against the oncoming weapons fire against them, while trying unsuccessfully to draw closer to directly engage the baseships. Playing to their strengths, the baseships excelled while taking advantage of their massive supply of missiles and keeping the Battlestars from using their KEWs on them.

Ignoring the defensive fire Saturn was putting up towards the Cylon ship, the baseship streamed ahead while using weapons fire solely to clear a path. Seeing their intentions too late, Saturn tried in vain to get out of the way but failed to maneuver out of the baseship's path in time. The baseship, damaged from the previous fighting at Virgon, crashed straight into Saturn with the baseship's spire acting like a spear that went through and pierced the opposing Battlestar. Secondary explosions rolled throughout both ships from the impact and as their tylium lines and weapon stores lit up simultaneously. Huge explosions combining together consumed the two ships and created a blinding light momentarily affecting nearby vipers and raiders in their fighting.

Orion closed distance with the opposing baseship in a high speed pass and scored repeated salvo fire across the baseship, tearing through two of the baseship's spires and causing damage in multiple sections of the ship.

Heavy cruiser Echo took moderate damage from the baseship's assault as multiple anti-ship missiles impacted amidst the ship. Heavy cruiser Amor was unable to help her sister ship as repeated missiles launched from the baseship deterred her approach, though little damage came from the attack as most of the missiles were intercepted.

Gunstars Terra and Nox were under heavy pressure as they were swarmed by raiders. Over a dozen hull breaches opened up and several weapons platforms were blasted off. Over twenty raiders were destroyed in return from flak fire combined with the Gunstars full range of KEW fire from the main weapons.

Pacifica took damage ship wide as the Battlestar broke through the weapons fire the three baseships put out, leaving Neptune to go around and forcing one of the baseships to maintain weapons fire to keep both Battlestars from closing distance against the baseships. Pacifica continued its maneuver blowing past the Cylons' defenses in a high speed, and began firing a broadside across one of the baseships. Following the heavy damage that opened up hull breaches across the baseship, several nukes streamed towards the damaged areas of the baseship, with a couple surviving defensive fire to detonate inside the guts of the baseship. The massive explosion that ensued destroyed the baseship, leading to the sensors on the nearby ships' being temporarily blinded from the blast.

Battlestar Orion went in for another high speed pass, and within moments repeated salvo fire cut a swath straight through the opposing baseship. As the baseship's guts were ripped apart, a large explosion from the inside of the ship consumed the remains of the baseship. Orion avoided flaming debris, with vipers following suit as their dogfights were abruptly ended with several fighters on both sides being crushed by debris.

The baseship engaging the colonial Heavy cruisers launched a larger nuclear strike against her opponents. At long distance Amor was available to maneuver out of the way of many missiles and take out the remainder with defensive fire, taking little damage as other anti-ship missiles impacted amidst the ship. Heavy cruiser Echo was not quite so lucky. Over a dozen nuclear warheads impacted across the length of the heavy cruiser. The battering explosions made the ship scream in agony, accumulative damage taking the ship's armor far past its capacity to handle, and within moments the Heavy cruiser detonated in an outward expanding explosion. Heavy damage was dealt to the nearby baseship in return as multiple large sections of debris from the colonial ship impacted across the baseship.

Gunstar Terra lit up space around here with all of her remaining flak guns and main weaponry cannons firing straight into the swarm of raiders surrounding the Gunstar. Taking the opportunity her weapons fire created, Terra quickly launched through the storm of raiders and literally pushed two raiders out of her way – causing damage but eliminating the opposing forces. Nearby vipers finally reached Terra, providing covering fire to the beleaguered Gusntar. Gunstar Nox did not share the jubilation that erupted from the Terra's crew. Unable to break through the swarm of raiders regrouping around the Gunstar, Nox was stuck in place as her engines and numerous weapons platforms were obliterated from the cannon fire unleashed by the raiders buzzing around her. Incapable of running and quickly losing her offensive and defensive capabilities with the increasing raider presence around the ship doing all they could to tear apart Nox piece by piece, the crew of the Gunstar Nox saluted one another and said final prayers as they detonated their remaining weapons stores. Several nuclear explosions erupted from Nox, consuming the heavily damaged Gunstar in seconds, and quickly moving through and consuming the nearby raiders as well. Within moments dozens of raiders were eliminated from the last actions of the Gunstar Nox.

As the remaining colonial fleet maneuvered to engage the remaining baseships, the Cylons seeing the loss of the initiative began to jump out of the area as damage accumulated among their ships. The remaining raiders began jumping out even as vipers chased them to the last, eliminating several before they could disengage.

A short SAR mission started across the fleet, searching for what crew members or pilots could have survived in the area. Within ten minutes the remaining fleet jumped out of space above Virgon before more reinforcements could arrive from the Cylons. The remaining colonial units across the colonies finished their missions, taking advantage of the time the fleet at Virgon had given them before the civilian ships safely jumped out with full loads of survivors. The marines left behind began carrying out their remaining orders, getting everyone they'd so far retrieved underground and preparing for black ops quiet retrievals in coming days for more survivors, though they knew they'd never fit everyone or even find all the survivors across the colonies.

**Cylon Space, Command Ship**

"So it would seem the humans took us by surprise again," one of the cavils said.

"All the damaged baseships have been towed to the shipyards, joining the various others we've gathered since the attacks started," a number six said disapprovingly.

"We've since discovered the source of much of the disturbances the colonials employed to fool our sensors and get us to work as they wanted. The remaining satellites the colonials could control in orbit have been eliminated. The humans won't be able to use the same trick twice," a number four said calmly.

"They can still jam communications in force, but it won't be as easy for them next time," a number five agreed.

"Using the distress call to lead us into a trap was unexpected to say the least. Perhaps we can return the favor," a number three D'Anna said.

"How so?" Iliana six asked.

"We lure them into a trap of our own with a colonial distress call. Only, unfortunately for the humans, there will in fact be colonial ships in trouble," number three said.

"Gather other fleeing colonial fleets and send out a distress call for BSG98 and whatever other forces they've hooked up with to hear?" a number five asked, considering the idea.

"Their greatest weakness is their sense of duty to their fellow colonials. They'll go for it, we just need to make it look good," the number three said.

"Then it's just a matter of which of the fleeing colonial units we can direct to them," a number two Leoben said.

"We've already eliminated several of the other colonial units that tried to gather civilian fleets and escape, failing to go far enough like Galactica. Perhaps we should simply direct the other remaining fleets we've been chasing for over a week," a number eight said.

"Gather them together and just get rid of all the nuisances we're facing in this area of space, all at once?" a number one Cavil asked, liking the idea a lot as he grinned evilly at the thought.

"We'd have to be sure they can't meet up and add their forces together to escape," a number five Doral said.

"It's just about timing for when we send the distress call. Easy enough," a number four said confidently.

"Have we learned anything about the allies BSG98 had in carrying out their latest attack?" a number one asked.

"Our sensors were jammed and disrupted too much; several Battlestars and other ships are assumed to have been involved, but no positive identification besides the ships of BSG98," number five Doral said.

"So basically an unknown number of support ships, with an unknown support structure, and at an unknown location," a number one Cavil said sarcastically, glaring angrily at the number five.

"It's reasonable to assume wherever they are that they've got shipyards to repair damage, otherwise BSG98 wouldn't have been able to keep throwing themselves into battles as they have," a number three said.

"Raiders have been encountering raptors patrolling deep space and throughout the colonies; I suppose we can assume that they're linked to wherever this group of colonials is located, using a thought out search grid rather than the random encounters we've believed they were," a number two Leoben said.

"We'll simply have to follow a patrol back to their base then. BSG98 will fall for our trap soon enough, and if we can't get to this other group of colonials otherwise, then we'll lure them out with other means," a number one Cavil said.

"By your command," Iliana six droned out sarcastically, looking down at the Cavil in disgust and disliking his approach to things.

**Several hours after operation's ending**

**Red Horse Nebula**

**Olympia Station**

"Thousands of fleet personnel lost, a few hundred calculated casualties in the marine forces, as well as a few hundred pilots and fighter craft. Battlestar Saturn was destroyed with most of the crew aboard, a few survivors were recovered though, while Concordia will be aboard the shipyards for some time to come for repair work. Heavy cruiser Echo, and Gunstars Zephyrus, Psyche, Nox, and Hero were also destroyed," Commander Corgon reported stoically.

Admirals Thorn, Jones, and Commander Jacob turned ashen-faced at the report, sitting in silence.

Commander Corgon broke the silence as he continued after a moment, "At least eleven baseships were destroyed from the Cylon fleets, along with moderate to heavy damage on many that engaged our fleets or were among those lured by the distress call at the minefields. Numerous raiders were lost as well. The civilian ships evacuating survivors got out without a hitch, and we recovered several hundred thousand civilians. Our last reports from the colonies showed that the marines are following their missions as planned and gathered a large group of survivors to safe locations during the time we had for the mission."

"Can't say I'm overly pleased with our results despite the damage to the Cylons," Admiral Jones said, wrapping the gauze around his forehead tighter to stem bleeding from a wound he received in the fighting.

"We achieved our objectives, and we'll be able to bring back more survivors later thanks to this mission. The losses and damages across the Cylon fleet will also affect their operations for some time to come. They'll have to spread out their numbers a bit more, so another assault on the colonies when the time is right has a chance of success," Admiral Thorn said.

"Hopefully General Laurence can maintain order and carry out her mission," Commander Jacob said.

"We should hope that Laurence doesn't go outside her mission parameters and engage the Cylons enough to risk the survivors," Admiral Jones said.

"I'd expect her to do just that, she's ready for blood and could very well take too many risks in trying to get payback at the Cylons. I have faith in her though, she should be able to reel herself in, if her XO fails to help force her to see reason. Not much we can do about it now though," Admiral Thorn said, chuckling darkly.

"The rest of BSG 98 has been placed inside drydocks for priority repairs," Commander Jacob said, changing the subject after a moment as the others remained silent.

"Yes," Commander Corgon said, rummaging through his files for the report he was looking for before continuing, "repairs should be completed to a sufficient level over the next few days. Viper pilots are being shuffled in from around the fleet to offer experience to as many pilots as possible."

"The crews will need some downtime to recover. After they get some sleep, the pilots can be put through training to get the new additions and veterans up to speed and working together fluidly," Admiral Jones said.

"Sounds good. Unfortunately I have to ask BSG98 to go out for another mission within a few days," Admiral Thorn said.

"Sir?" Admiral Jones said, half incredulously and partially curiously.

"I'm sorry Admiral, I know your fleet needs time away from the fighting to recover, but the Cylons aren't working according to our schedule, much as I wish they were. Communications intercepts have revealed that other surviving colonial units are being hunted by the Cylons, and an imminent threat may be placed on them soon enough. We may need to send your fleet back out once we learn more, possibly within a few days," Admiral Thorn said.

"Very well sir. BSG98 will be ready," Admiral Jones said tiredly.

"There's a lot to prepare and you'll need some rest to get started, so we'll leave things as is. Dismissed," Admiral Thorn said.

"Sir," Admiral Jones, and Commander Jacob said, saluting the Admiral before turning to head for the hangar deck and return to their ships.

"What do you think?" Admiral Thorn asked, looking to Commander Corgon once they were alone.

"They're tired. If we had the opportunity given all the fighting we've had BSG98 doing they'd be sitting in the yard for an extended period to recuperate, but none of our remaining units are as combat ready," Commander Corgon said sadly, knowing what Thorn was thinking.

"Can we do anything to help them?" Admiral Thorn said, feeling helpless, thinking hard about his strengths in R&amp;D for anything to give their forces an edge.

"There are some ideas to upgrade the fleet and some heavy changes that the fleet never would've considered in the past, advancements we've had in technology but couldn't use because of cost considerations. However, we can't do anything in such a short time. They can't have a lengthy period aboard Unity and Eternity as you know," Commander Corgon said.

"We'll have to see about finding ways to get around our restrictions," Admiral Thorn said.

"Aye sir," Commander Corgon said sadly.


	4. 1x04 Rendezvous Part I

**Randezvous - Part I**

**Day 36 Since the Fall**

**Admiral Thorn's Log**

_It's been a little over three weeks since Operation Covert Insertion covering the majority of the colonies for evacuations and leaving behind marine forces to get survivors to safety for us to pick up at an opportune time in the future._

_BSG 98 and several other ships have had all but the most minor repairs completed to get them back to combat readiness. Many others are being worked on and re-activated. Volunteers to join the fleet have been recruited and many have begun training as fleet personnel and fighter pilots, though it could be many months before they are effectively ready to contribute among the fleet._

_R&amp;D has continued several research projects, including on the use of EMPs as were heavily used against the Cylons previously. Designs for future new ships and particularly fighters have been rampant, with many corrections and additions implemented and debated; though it could be some time to start work on them, particularly with the focus on the number of damaged and decommissioned ships being worked on in the shipyards currently._

_Raptors patrolling space looking civilian ships escaping the colonies have been coming back with fewer and fewer survivors over the past weeks. Before long they started coming up empty entirely and so we had to end the patrols with the assumption of the remainder of colonial ships either being well hidden, taken in by other surviving military units, or destroyed by the Cylons._

_Admiral Jones' fleet has led several hit and run raiding missions over the past weeks against the Cylons, once enough of their damage was repaired. They mostly kept to the outer outposts of the colonies and a few minor skirmishes against patrolling Cylon fleets to keep them off balance. For the most part the Cylons have been consolidating their forces, very little movement or signs of tracking down BSG98 have been seen since our last major operation across the colonies. A number of their baseships seem to be missing from the data we've obtained about their deployments._

_Unfortunately our fears were confirmed about the Cylon fleet deployment when we found two of the fleeing civilian fleets led by military units destroyed and mere wreckage left behind in space. There were so very many lives were lost among the fleeing fleets found, with no sign of any survivors as far as we could tell. There have been signs of other skirmishes of survivors against pursuing groups of Cylons, and all indications point to the Cylons drawing the fleeing colonial units to one point of space closer to the colonies, predicting a possible escape route to get around the Cylon fleets. BSG98 has been dispatched and hopefully will reach the colonial units in time to get them to safety, though it'll take some hours at minimum to sweep through space along the outer rim of the colonies for where we believe the survivors will be found._

_May the gods look after those colonial survivors until BSG 98 can get to them._

**End Log**

**Deep Space, Outside Colonial Explored Space**

The remnants of groups of colonials fleeing the desolation of the Cylon attack were spread out among different systems, originally heading out to deep space to go beyond the Cylons' reach. Unfortunately not long after their escape of the Cylon attack, Cylon forces showed up around each fleet. The military escorts would hold off the Cylons until the civilians could jump away from the battle, whereby the rest of the colonials would follow. The Cylons were content in this pattern as they wore down the colonial units bit by bit, expecting their eventual destruction in time. This pattern of retreat and regroup while the Cylons whittled away the colonial remnants eventually changed as a new plan came down from Cylon command, agreed upon by consensus of all Cylon models. Soon thereafter heavier Cylon fleets began searching for the colonials, taken away from the units in Cyrannus temporarily. Picket lines were drawn far ahead of where the colonials were jumping towards, with numerous raider groups spread out among surrounding space. Eventually the worn out colonial fleet units, whittled down in strength by the increased attention from the Cylons, were forced to consider jumping back to the colonies and following that to jump away again in a completely direction of space to lose the Cylons. Several Cylon human models spread among the colonial fleets aboard their military ships began suggesting to the colonial commanders in each colonial unit exactly where the best place to go was for what they hoped to achieve; Ophion.

The colonial units began following the pattern for what they hoped was a foolproof plan to escape the Cylons at last, unaware of the Cylon involvement in brainstorming the idea. As they neared their destination fewer resistance by Cylon units was met, allowing the colonial units to believe their idea to backtrack was working, and at the same time acting to corral the colonials where the Cylons wanted them.

**Day 36, 1100 hours**

**Cylon Patrolling Fleet**

"Everything is in place. The colonials so far suspect nothing is amiss. With coordinated timing of the arrival of the colonial fleets we can take them out easily, and leave enough crippled survivors for stage two in the plan," a number three said.

"Be careful not to become overconfident sister. Galactica in particular has shown to escape the best liad Cylon plans in the past, and these colonials could very well do the same," a number two Leoben said.

"Weeks of work put into this effort, with delaying some of our other operations, this had better work," a number four Simon said, eyeing Leoben warily.

"You worry too much," a number Six said simply.

"We're about to have a replay of the destruction of the colonial fleet in a miniature version, lighten up Two," a number one Cavil said, chuckling as he gazed at the Leoben model.

"Says the Cylon who is sure to throw a tantrum when things don't go his way. Don't say I didn't warn you," the number two Leoben replied quietly.

"Raiders are regrouping in preparation, with the other basestars getting into position now," a number Eight reported, her hands immersed in the data stream of the Cylon baseship.

"Then the time is at hand. Let's end this resistance the Cylon plan and be done here," a number one Cavil said excitedly.

**Day 36, 1100 hours**

**Outer rim of the Colonies**

**Battlestar Pacifica**

"Sir, raptor patrol 45 showed no contacts. Several pieces of debris from Cylon raiders and colonial vipers were found floating in space by Raptor 127," Commander Sebastian reported, looking through several readouts from the latest patrols.

"We're headed in the right direction at least then," Admiral Jones said.

"Aye sir. In the meantime while patrols continue, the fleet CAG is having the vipers begin mock engagements in preparation. Integrating some of the new recruits to the fleet and other pilots that were loaned to gain experience is still taking some work to get them working as effective fighting force," Commander Sebastian said.

"Very well. Inform Major Blair she has permission to ramp up practice maneuvers among the fighters. She is not to wear out the pilots too much though, I have a feeling today's the day we'll see combat," Admiral Jones said.

"As you say sir. I do hope it won't be as bad as the look on your face indicates you believe," Commander Sebastian said, eyeing the Admiral.

"I'm that easy to read then? Yes, let's hope not," Admiral Jones said smiling briefly before going back to the fleet table to look at the chart the Raptor patrols were quickly amassing of space in their search for survivors and the Cylons.

**1300 hours**

**Ophion Gas Giant, Colonial Space**

Six baseships with hundreds of raiders were bearing down on the remnants of the colonial fleet led by Mercury class Battlestar Polyeidos.

Gunstars Katar, Dagger, Bolo, Xiphos, and Celt provided defensive fire support for Polyedios, and helped the dispersed groups of vipers among the fleet the guard the twenty-five various civilian ships behind the military units.

Three baseships broke off from the Cylon formation and turned to engage the Gunstars as their concentrated fire took out dozens of offending raiders with much of their missile supply and KEW fire. The other three baseships continued concentrating on Polyeidos, amassing large missile launches against the ship while a large portion of their raiders focused on strafing runs against the lone Battlestar, taking advantage of the ship's deployment of most of her vipers to defend the civilian ships.

Damage accumulated across the mighty Battlestar as fires and hull breaches covered many sections of the ship.

**Battlestar Polyeidos CIC**

Commander Joseph Marshall held on tightly to the CIC plot table as the ship shook from yet another weapons hit.

"Sir, reports show several raiders going on suicide runs and impacting across the ship. Other raiders are on strafing runs to fire on us, while the baseships continue launching their droves of missiles at us. The new Deck Chief reports his DC units have several fires amidst the ship taken care of, but they're stretched thin," Lieutenant Porter reported.

"CAG reports the viper squadrons are holding the line, but expect a break through at any time. A little over a dozen vipers are all that's keeping the raider swarms off our backs for the moment despite what some are doing to the ship now. The Gunstars are being engaged heavily by the three baseships that splintered from the main force moments ago," Colonel Palmer added, putting down the headset unit that had delivered the latest intel to the flagship.

Commander Marshall considered the Cylon movements on the dradis readout overhead for a moment.

"Helm, bring us ahead. I want salvo fire on the nearest baseship, ignore the others for now. Let's give them something to think about," Commander Marshall said.

"Aye sir," the helm officer replied.

Battlestar Polyeidos leapt forward unexpectedly towards the three Cylon baseships. The mighty ship's mass of KEWs fired at the nearest baseship, ignoring the nearby raiders and other baseships. Salvo fire ripped through baseship's spires, with heavy damage in multiple sections across the baseship.

The damaged baseship began a limited quarter turn, maneuvering away from the engagement while the other two baseships moved forward in support to take on Polyeidos. Switching her attention, her mass of KEWs swiveled around and fired at the two baseships, forcing both to back off to a safer distance.

Commander Marshall breathed a sigh of relief while many of the crew in CIC cheered for the minor victory.

Gunstars Katar, Dagger, Bolo, Xiphos, and Celt were hard pressed as the three basestars added dozens of missiles to what the raiders were launching towards them. The Gunstars redeployed their defense line to field defensive fire against the mass of missiles, leaving the vipers to safeguard the civilian ships and heading off the oncoming baseships.

Gunstar Bolo wasn't fast enough in maneuvering into a better position for defense and suffered the consequences as the mass of oncoming missiles impacted on the ship. Gunstar Bolo exploded in a mass of debris as her defenses were overwhelmed with several nukes dealing heavy damage until the collective explosion consumed the ship.

Gunstars Katar, Dagger, Xiphos, and Celt took out the remaining mass of missiles the baseships and raiders launched at them, with heavier defensive fire pushed outward using a huge chunk of their ammunition stores to head off more missiles the Cylons fired. Several missiles impacted still, leaving fires and hull breaches in several sections of the ships.

Battlestar Polyeidos rushed towards the fleeing baseships, firing off all her KEWs and flak guns in heavy concentrations towards the two baseships defending the previously damaged basestar, hitting several raiders in the way and ignoring the others in the way. Severe damage accumulated on the basestars with two of their spires on each ship being blown off and several hull breaches through their armor, though the downside to this strategy was that except the path of the Battlestars line of heavy weapons fire, in all other directions she was vulnerable with no defensive fire put out. Nine raiders slammed into the heavy Battlestar, destroying several weapons platforms and flak guns, while other missiles from strafing runs by raiders dealt more damage across sections of the ship's heavy armor. Fires and hull breaches intensified aboard the ship, with casualties mounting.

With the three battered baseships now backing away from Polyeidos and the Battlestars defenses redeployed, the other three baseships backpedaled and maneuvered to re-engage Polyeidos from behind. Each ship exchanged heavy fire as missiles and cannon fire streamed towards each ship and damage piled up from weapons hits making it to each ship.

Gunstar Celt was overrun by dozens of raiders concentrating on the Gunstar that was at the outset far end of the Gunstars defensive line. As thirteen raiders literally ran into the ship to take it out, detonating several nukes they carried in the process, Gunstar Celt exploded.

The quarter of the Cylon fleet's raider force heading towards the civilian ships were heavily engaged with vipers in the way. Several were destroyed on both sides as fierce dogfights broke out among the fighters. Six raiders broke off from their engagement and after weaving through the vipers' picket lines started launching missiles as they closed with the civilian ships. Five vipers quickly gave chase to the raiders, closing to take half of them out with cannon fire in short order, and then dispersing to fire on the missiles. Their efforts proved not enough as a civilian passenger liner, a medical ship, and a mining ship exploded from missiles detonating on their lightly armored structures.

"The chief reports the fires are proving too much for DC units past frame four towards the port flightpod,"Colonel Palmer reported.

"Have the remaining crew in that area evacuated and begin venting before the tylium lines are breached," Commander Marshall ordered sternly, holding tightly to the CIC plot table again as more missiles impacting the ship shook the CIC.

"Take us on a course straight through the baseships, with heavy KEW fire and launch of nukes as we pass, and then turn us around when we're on the other side," Commander Marshall said, watching the dradis closely.

"Aye sir," the helms officer replied.

"We won't last long in there. Even if we make it to the other side…" Colonel Palmer said, trailing off.

"No. We won't. If we make it through we can redeploy our defenses with the Gunstars around us and keep the Cylons off the fleet more easily. The other three baseships should be out of the fight for repairs for a bit, and if we can damage at least one more on our way we might have a chance," Commander Marshall said quietly.

Battlestar Polyeidos passed straight through the Cylon baseships' formation to pass by two of them on her way, numerous missiles launched from close range by the baseships and impacted on Polyeidos to leave heavy damage in multiple sections. Polyeidos then returned fire as her KEWs opened up unleashing hell on the baseships which impacted with explosive force on both baseships, and after passing through to the other side past the baseships her missile launchers unleashed several nukes on the baseships. Raiders managed to take out four of the missiles by throwing themselves directly at the nukes, while two low yield nukes made it through to impact on each baseship's armor and dealing heavy damage that opened a huge hole on the ship, with fires streaming through the ship.

Battlestar Polyeidos made a complete turn to once again face the baseships and within moments was joined by the Gunstars as they encircled around their mothership to provide support. The mass of raiders were drawn away from the civilian fleet and vipers to provide more defensive for to the baseships and engage the colonial warships.

After over thirty minutes of combat wearing the colonial remnants down and dealing more damage to the Cylons than they had accounted for in their plan, more dradis contacts began appearing a short distance from the civilian fleet, opposite where the military units were blocking off the baseships from moving forward.

"Sir, I'm getting colonial recognition codes," the dradis officer said incredulously moments after the dradis contacts began appearing in the system.

"More survivors?" Colonel Palmer said questioningly, with a hint of suspicion in his tone.

"We'd better hope so given their distance and proximity to the civilians," Commander Marshall said shortly, "get them on the line now."

"They report receipt of recognition codes sir. I'm reading one Tiger II destroyer the Nebula, Gunstars Vigilant, Lynx, and Cestus, as well as twelve civilian ships. The civilian ships are joining with ours and the others are heading to support us sir," the communications officer reported, tears streaming down her face.

"Looks like we're not alone anymore," Colonel Palmer said.

Several crew members in CIC began cheering for a moment before the XO loudly ordered them to get back to their posts and make sure the fleet lived another day.

**Destroyer Nebula's CIC**

"Recognition codes acknowledged and confirmed. Civilian ships have regrouped with the other civilians in the second fleet, and vipers are taking picket positions along with the other vipers engaging a limited number of raiders. The Gunstars are following us in, Delta defensive formation will be enforced as we align with Polyeidos and their Gunstars," Colonel Walker reported.

"Get me the CO on Polyeidos. Also, prepare all weapons for firing as we get into position," Commander Meyers said, momentarily getting the cheering crew back to work.

"Aye sir," the communications officer replied.

"This is Commander Marshall, Polyeidos actual speaking," Commander Meyers heard the Polyeidos' CO say moments later once they were on the line.

"Commander, it's good to hear your voice and see other survivors," Commander Meyers said.

"Couldn't have said it better myself. As you can see we need to get into position to head off the baseships. Three are still recovering from heavy damage past the three ahead of us, of which one of them is reading as heavily damaged and listing to port uncontrollably," Commander Marshall said.

"Understood Commander. Can we get our civilians out of here so we can follow and not lose more of what's left of our forces?" Commander Meyers asked.

"We were intending to head out to a separate section of deep space following meeting Cylons wherever we went on our previous path the past few weeks. Unfortunately our navigation has to come from the better sensors and tech aboard the military ships to jump out far from here and it's taking far longer to load with our focus on this battle," Commander Marshall said.

"I see. Then we should take out the battered Cylon forces and expedite to get the frack out of here," Commander Meyers said.

"Sounds like a plan. The raiders are converging on us and trying to defend their baseships, so the civilians should be fine. We can move forward and take out two of the baseships, and preferably the Cylons will jump out," Commander Marshall said.

"Let's get to it then," Commander Meyers agreed shortly.

Destroyer Nebula and the battered Battlestar Polyeidos surged forward with their defending Gunstars, maneuvering to begin firing on the baseships which had maneuvered to cover the basestar having trouble controlling its movements.

Concentrated KEW fire burned through the spires on the least damaged baseship as it maneuvered to take hits off its more injured compatriots. The Battlestar and Destroyer spewed out more KEW fire as they closed distance, mounting heavy damage to the baseship. The Gunstars covered their motherships as raiders swarmed the colonial fleet, destroying dozens with their heavy flak fields.

Dradis contacts were registered among the sensors of both fleets, disrupting the colonials' offensive as six baseships jumped in behind the other forward three baseships. The fresh baseships maneuvered past their more damaged counterparts and began launching numerous missiles towards the military ships in front of them. Raiders launched from the baseships reinforced the previously wavering numbers of raiders defending the baseships and taking on the military support/capital ships.

**Command baseship**

"It appears coordinating the timing of their arrival didn't exactly work out well enough. Wonder who fracked up," a number four said.

"Reports from the other fleet show things went as planned, we just didn't account for Polyeidos wreaking so much havoc," a number three D'Anna said.

"It cost them. Her firepower appears to be taken down considerably with a number of her guns out of action. Fires and breaches appear rampant in the ship, and with casualties mounting it won't be any easier for them," a number five Doral said confidently.

"Send the orders now to our agents," a number one Cavil said, hungrily looking towards destruction among the colonial fleet.

**Battlestar Polyeidos CIC**

Commander Marshall was thrown to the floor as explosions shook the ship, with a detonation near the CIC.

"What the frack happened?" Commander Marshall asked loudly as he got to his feet.

Several officers and personnel were likewise getting to their feet with various injuries, and a few stayed down, dead.

"An explosion took out half the marine force outside guarding CIC," Lieutenant Otis reported in shock, after a moment to gather information from the ships communications.

"Sir…" the communications officer exclaimed loudly, ashen faced as she listened to incoming reports from the fleet.

"Report Lieutenant," Commander Marshall said shortly, trying to shock the lieutenant out of her reverie.

"Detonations reported simultaneously throughout the fleet. Gunstars Cestus, Vigilant, and Katar took heavy damage from munitions exploding inside the ship. Gunstar Xiphos is off the board entirely, the explosion inside combined with weapons fire she received on the outside was too much for her. But sir, several civilian ships are reporting detonations aboard and their FTL was taken offline, in fact several detonations were located right next to the FTL drives so the ships are stranded. Heavy casualties reported on each affected ship, civilian and military," the communications officer reported.

Commander Marshall stood stock still in shock, staring at the Lieutenant as he tried to comprehend what she just told him.

"Sir, the six new baseships are moving forward. We'll be heavily engaged and cut off from the civilians within two minutes based on their course pattern," Colonel Palmer said.

Shaking off his emotions and forcing himself to get moving Commander Marshall grabbed the comms relay on the plat table and began speaking, "all ships this is Polyeidos Actual, maneuver back to the civilian ships before we get cut off and redeploy our defensive line. Raptors and shuttles are to launch to begin evacuating the civilians off the ships that lost their FTL drives."

Putting down the comms headset, the Commander turned to the weapons officer, "I want salvo fire on the baseship in our path trying to block us off from the civilians. I need gun crews picking out targets over the baseship for maximum effect, with firing plotting done yesterday. Load HE rounds in all long range KEWs, and fire for effect."

"Aye sir," the weapons officer said, relaying the orders across the ship.

"Commander Meyers reports he'll fire on the other baseship maneuvering to block our path," the communications officer reported.

Battlestar Polyeidos and Destroyer Nebula quickly maneuvered away from the baseships, diverging to fire their heavy weaponry on the two baseships in their path trying to block them. The baseships took heavy fire with explosions raging and multiple sections opened to space, the centurions rushing about inside to contain the ship.

Passing past the Cylon fleet, the capital colonial ships weaved through raiders and came to a dead stop a number of clicks away from the civilian ships and turned around to face the Cylon baseships, with their Gunstars maneuvering to cover them once in position. Dozens of raptors and shuttles launched and landed aboard the civilian ships, to quickly pile up the civilians inside and important cargo to be shuttled over to other civilian ships.

The six fresh baseships maneuvered towards the colonial military ships, launching streams of missiles and raiders. Behind them two of the least damaged baseships moved forward to add supporting fire, with the others trying to manage their damage.

Despite increased numbers from the new arriving Gunstars, the vipers were hard pressed against the renewed fighting force of the raiders.

Heavy raiders jumped in behind Battlestar Polyeidos, firing dozens of nukes before jumping out, with flak fire taking down several before they could recharge their jump drives to leave.

"Radiological alarm. We've got incoming," Colonel Palmer said.

"Brace for contact, flak fire doubled towards the nukes," Commander Marshall ordered.

Several missiles impacted where Polyeidos lacked firing weapons platforms that had previously been blasted away or taken offline in earlier fighting. A few more missiles and nukes made it through flak fire to impact on other areas of the ship.

The lights covering Polyeidos, including highlighting her name on the flightpod, went out and all activity ceased from Polyeidos as the ship went dark.

**Destroyer Nebula's CIC**

"Sir, Polyeidos is dead in space," the dradis officer confirmed.

"Order the Gunstars to maneuver with us to cover the Polyeidos," Commander Meyers ordered.

"Dagger and Katar report that they're running out of ammunition and have several cannons overheating," Colonel Walker reported as a medic strung up his broken left arm.

"Have Gunstars Dagger and Katar maneuver back towards the civilians and vipers in their area move ahead towards us," Commander Meyers ordered shortly.

"Sir? We'd be leaving the civilians more vulnerable until the Gunstars can get combat ready and even then with low ammunition they can't do much even after restoring their weapons systems," Colonel Walker said in disbelief.

"Call it a gambit. We're vulnerable and those Gunstars would be on the top of the chopping block in short order without any weapons firing. Moving them back while maneuvering vipers towards us will draw the Cylons in to us and keep them unaware that anything is amiss," Commander Meyers said.

"Aye sir," the communications officer said, transmitting orders throughout the fleet.

Destroyer Nebula drew forward with Gunstars Vigilant, Lynx, and Cestus, while Katar and Dagger maneuvered to the civilians passing vipers angling toward the main Cylon thrust by Nebula.

Nebula's main batteries opened fire holding nothing back, aiming at the nearest baseship. Heavy damage accumulated near the central axis as fires burst across the center of the basestar. The baseship began turning away from the fight, angling her less damaged sections towards the colonials, while the other five baseships drew ahead.

A combined wave of missiles launched from the baseships towards the oncoming colonial ships. The Gunstars held strong as they determinedly unleashed a stream of heavy flak fire at the oncoming missiles. Even so, a couple missiles got past the flak barrier and impacted, inflicting damage to the Gunstars. Two nukes detonated on Destroyer Nebula, dealing minor damage as the armor held out most of the blast.

As chaos rang supreme with both fleets continuing to fire on each other, dradis contacts registered on their sensors.

Six baseships jumped in behind the others already present, taking position ahead of the more damaged ships.

Near the colonials, in the midst of raiders and vipers engaging in dogfights, Valkyrie class Battlestar Morning Star, Columbia II class Battlestar Trident, Gunstar Pike, and Heavy cruiser Scythe, as well as nineteen civilian ships jumped into space above Ophion.

Quickly taking stock of the situation and ensuring recognition codes were exchanged among fleet units, the new arrivals formed up with their newly discovered allies. The civilian ships were escorted by a viper squadron to form up with the others, the vipers taking up guarding picket lines with the few others there in front of the civilians.

Several vipers running bingo on ammunition stores began landing on the Morning star and Trident to refuel and reload. All the vipers aboard the newly arrived ships quickly launched to reinforce the other remaining fighters engaged with raiders, even as fresh raiders streamed from the new baseships.

Battlestars Morning Star and Trident, with Heavy cruiser Scythe, joined Destroyer Nebula in a full forward thrust towards the Cylon lines, the Gunstars trailing behind.

Heavy KEW fire and missile launches swerved toward the offending baseships as the colonial ships maneuvered across their defensive lines.

Four baseships took heavy damage ship wide as KEW fire burned through layers of armor and opened the ships to space, with several nukes causing damage in numerous sections of the ship – the colonials aiming to deal as much damage as possible to hit everywhere on the baseships rather than aiming to take them out.

The Cylon baseships then began returning fire, unleashing hundreds of missiles with several nukes mixed in. The colonial ships were moving in a fast roving pattern and continuing to fire on down the line of baseships causing damage to ships as they passed, leaving much of the sent missiles to miss their mark. Dozens of missiles impacted on the colonial ships as they weaved their way through flak streams.

Gunstars Lynx and Cestus exploded as many of the fired missiles impacted along each ship, with Cestus having maneuvered to take hits from impacting on Nebula. Several KEW platforms and sections aboard the other colonial ships were reported moments after the remaining Cylon missiles made contact with the ships.

Battlestars Morning Star and Trident, Heavy cruiser Scythe, and Destroyer Nebula continued towards firing on the Cylon baseships as they weaved past damaged ships they'd already fired upon towards other fresher ones.

KEW fire streamed towards four baseships the colonial ships targeted. Several of their spires were ripped apart and exploding as salvo fire and HE rounds collapsed the structural supports with repeated hits, other sections across the baseships were damaged. Centurions rushed throughout the ships to repair the damage and maintain the combat capability of the ships, with several human Cylons lying dead around the ships.

The colonial ships began swerving away, back to head to their position guarding the civilian fleet. While they were still in close range, the Cylons unleashed another barrage of missiles towards the ships. As missiles passed through the defensive fire of the colonial units, damage was tossed among and between the ships with weapons platforms destroyed or taken offline and several ship sections opened to space or set on fire. Dozens were lost when venting was required to take out a particularly large fast moving fire on the Morning Star.

Even as the colonial ships began recovering from the latest barrage of missiles and heading towards the civilians while leaving behind several immobile heavily damaged baseships, raiders launched more missiles and nukes towards them. Several nukes impacted on Heavy cruiser Scythe, with one raider crashing into the ship with its payload, and left a burning husk of the now wrecked ship. Vipers quickly began heading off the raiders, taking out several in their way and engaging in dogfights with others, preventing more attacks until the colonial ships were back in formation at their intended destination, centered around the Nebula.

A few minutes passed with the colonials ships realigning in their new position, and the Cylons regrouping.

**Destroyer Nebula's CIC**

"Get me the commanders of Morning Star and Trident on the line," Commander Meyers ordered.

"You're on sir," the communications officer replied moments later.

"This is Nebula Actual. Despite the damage we inflicted, I propose sending in marines to board the baseships and distract the Cylons so we can hold them off, hopefully keeping them from regrouping in force around us," Commander Meyers said.

"Our marines would be at risk. Not to mention that I think it's hardly the time to strong out our forces in a risky operation with risk of not being able to recover them," Commander Bernard said.

"I agree, but we need to buy more time. Boarding parties will certainly be the last thing they expect if we find the idea so unbelievable, but we're desperate, and it's likely that given the damage on their ships it's a somewhat ideal time for boarding. Hopefully they're forced to hold back their forces in fear of more boarding and cordon off affected ships, limiting their forces attacking us," Colonel Dennings said.

"Then we're agreed. Let's get to it," Commander Meyers said shortly.

Ending the communications transmission, Meyers saw to the deployment of raptors to carry marines to the baseships. Marines on raptors launched from the Battlestars as well, while a few shuttles carrying ammunition launched towards Gunstars Katar and Dagger, vipers escorted the various launching small craft.

The three baseships with almost no damage on them spearheaded the Cylon fleet formation heading towards the colonial ships once again, with six of the least damaged baseships following slightly behind. With the changing Cylon fleet formation, the raptors carrying marines weaved through the chaos in space to land aboard the six trailing baseships, vipers blasted away and raiders in the way before heading to engage raiders once their charges to defend reached their destination.

Moving forward again slightly, Morning Star, Trident, and Nebula engaged the three baseships at the head of the Cylon formation.

Marines boarding the baseships dispersed inside the hanger decks, with dozens disembarking the baseships and firing on nearby centurions. They quickly set up defensive positions with heavy weaponry, while a handful of marines ventured deeper into the ship. Rather than trying to take the ships, the marines focused on wreaking havoc and chaos inside, drawing as much attention as they could and disrupting the Cylons.

Morning Star, Trident, and Nebula began combining their fire on the lead baseship. KEW fire began leaping towards the Cylon baseship in huge concentrations, while several missiles flew towards the Battlestars in return. Three KEWs overheated on Morning Star once they reached past their limits in their rate of fire, with one of them exploding with detonation of the ordinance inside and causing damage inside the ship, with at least the weapons controllers confirmed casualties from the blast.

KEW fire continued pouring onto the leading baseship from the three colonial ships, and quickly damage ran through the ship's innards, with fires raging across the baseship visible to all outside. Salvo fire on the baseship's central axis burned straight through to the other side, and ripped the baseship in half. The baseship detonated and was confirmed destroyed seconds later as explosions roiled throughout the remains of the ship.

The other six baseships began backing off the battle line as their crews became concerned with the boarding marines, dozens of human Cylons and centurions being killed in short order on the baseships, even as centurions began driving back the marines to their dropships. The heavy weaponry the marines setup in the hangars easily drove back oncoming centurions, slowing their approach and proving deadly to any stupid enough to try going outside of cover.

The two other lightly damaged baseships grew closer to the colonial ships, combining missile swarms at Morning Star. Raiders also joined the fray as dozens began strafing run on the colonial ships. Several impacted on the ships in suicide runs. Morning Star took heavy damage and began listing to port as several nukes and other missiles induced heavy damage across and inside the Battlestar. Fires and hull breaches spread over multiple sections of the ship plucked away at the personnel manning the ship little by little, with hundreds gone in no time at all.

**Trident CIC**

"Order all vipers in the area to break away. I wanted missile tubes loaded with nukes, set for soft launch to detonate amidst the area between us and the nearest baseship," Commander Bernard ordered.

"Aye sir," the communications officer replied, relaying the orders.

Several of the weapons officers began relaying commands to get the weapons requested ready in short order with the required strike package loaded.

"All vipers, break, break," Major Davis ordered after receiving the latest orders and messages from command aboard the Trident, quickly moving his own viper out of the area.

Following the vipers vacating air space in the firing range Trident intended, several missiles launched into space towards the nearest baseship. Raiders engaged to destroy the missiles, but were surpised as several broke off and detonated amidst the large distance of space between Trident and the targeted baseship, while two continued on to the baseship before detonating nearby. Besides the explosions taking out nearby raiders in fiery death, the nukes unleashed large electro-magnetic pulses across the targeted area, affecting all nearby raiders and the baseship. Many of the raiders were stopped where they were in space as they shut down, with a couple colliding with each as they continued their forward motion. KEW fire from Trident as a follow up attack quickly shredded a number of raiders in front of her, all in a straight line towards the affected baseship, with more hitting the baseship to cause unimpeded damage across the ship.

Nebula covered Morning Star, with Trident closely following as the ships maneuvered away from engaging the baseships, reaching a safe distance to redeploy and give their crew and weapons time to prepare for continued combat.

Marines began taking casualties aboard the baseships they had landed on, with rockets taking out their machine gun and heavy weaponry emplacements. Before long the centurions began driving back the marines, and they escaped in their boarding craft taking the raptors out of the baseships. One crew left behind a present before boarding their evac craft. The two raptors from that baseship barely managed to stay ahead of the ensuing explosion consuming the baseship after they disembarked, with a nuke inside wreaking havoc throughout the baseship until it blasted apart.

The raptors headed back toward their motherships with vipers regrouping the area providing escort. One raptor blew up as raiders closed distance and fired on the fleeing small craft.

The remaining baseships began surging forward again to continue launching missiles towards the colonial fleet, even as the baseships maintained a healthy long distance as they minded their own heavy damage aboard their ships.

Raiders began re-engaging the defending ships covering the civilians, overrunning the lightly armed Katar and Dagger quickly enough, with a few bypassing the vipers to start firing on the civilians.

In all the chaos going on with the battle lines drawn between the two sides, a lone raptor jumped out of space near Ophion with data on the area, carrying information back to its mother ship that would be very interested in what the raptor had discovered. Ironically the Cylons forgotten original plan of a distress call to attract their main target, even as they had bitten off more than they could chew, would no longer be necessary. BSG98 was coming; as the support raptor quickly delivered information the commanding officers would act on in short order.


	5. 1x05 Rendezvous Part II

**Randezvous – Part II**

**Fifteen minutes after return of raptor to BSG98**

**Ophion Gas Giant**

The ships of BSG98 quickly appeared out of FTL; Battlestars Pacifica, Neptune, Orion, Heavy cruiser Amor, and Gunstar Terra jumped into space over Ophion.

**Battlestar Pacifica CIC**

"Report," Admiral Jones said shortly as systems came online following the jump, dradis compiling data on everything in space within the range of the combined fleet's sensors.

"Tiger II destroyer Nebula is floating in space with a baseship piercing through the ship, neither ship are in piece and appear to have signs of life. Valkyrie class Battlestar Morning Star, and Columbia II class Battlestar Trident have Gunstars Pike and Vigilant supporting them and are under heavy attack by five mostly undamaged baseships, with 16 moderate to heavily damaged baseships streaming behind and keeping their distance but firing off weapons from long distance as they're able. Gunstars Katar and Dagger are hard pressed with vipers against a mass of raiders attacking them, with 300 plus near them and others attacking the civilian ships. Twelve civilian ships are burning with rampant fires and are breaking apart. Another thirty civilian ships are under fire by raiders, with vipers just barely keeping them off of the civilians," the dradis officer said.

Admiral Jones shook off the swirl of emotions threatening to take hold of him and keep him immobilized, "I want all vipers launched from all ships, if anyone's ever held a stick I want them out there. Get the raiders the frak away from those civilian ships!"

"Sir!" the communications officer replied, shaken out of his shocked reverie, relaying the Admiral's orders throughout the fleet.

"This is the XO, launch all vipers. All pilots are to board their planes, all reserves out there now! Raptors begin launching for SAR," Commander Sebastian said, holding up the comms relay from the CIC plot table.

"Have Orion and Amor plot a course to port angling towards the two undamaged baseships. Neptune is to take up station near Gunstars Katar and Dagger with Terra, and strongly discourage anymore raiders or baseships from getting closer to the civilians. Helm, take us in to starboard to head off the other three baseships attacking Morning Star and Trident. Once we get past them we're going to head for the damaged baseships beyond and draw the Cylon fleet towards us while the civilians and the rest of the fleet prepare to jump out. I want our bow KEWs firing as we come about and a broadside on those baseships once in range!" Admiral Jones ordered.

"Aye sir," various personnel around CIC shouted out, carrying out their assigned orders.

The fleet separated; Pacifica, Orion, and Amor closed with the five baseships and began firing on them, while Neptune and Terra began supporting Katar and Dagger quickly shredding raiders in their path with KEW fire. Most of the fleet's vipers headed towards the mass of raiders bearing down on the civilian ships while the rest stuck with the fleet heading towards the baseships, supporting the failing squadrons already present and heavily engaged with raiders.

Pacifica unleashed a flak storm on raiders in her path, and closing with the baseships started bombarding them with her KEWs. The nearest baseship took heavy fire across her central axis and began turning away with fires streaming across the ship. Angling slightly, Pacifica unleashed a broadside, bringing all her KEWs to bear across her spine and firing on the other two baseships in the lineup. Both received several hits and heavy damage from the concentration of KEW fire, quickly turning away and trying to show their undamaged armored sections towards the offending colonial ship.

Orion and Amor combined their fire on the nearest portside baseship, scoring several hits across the baseship's armor, shredding sections of the ship with the armor buckling.

Neptune and Terra reached the Gunstars' position just as Katar was hit by nukes launched by raiders, destroying the ship outright; KEW fire from the newly arrived ships shredded nearby raiders, with vipers streaming past and firing on others assaulting the Dagger. The surge of vipers quickly carved a path through the raiders attacking the civilians, destroying the last of them over the next few minutes and angling to provide a defensive envelop just after two more civilian ships fell to weapons fire.

**Trident CIC**

"Commander colonial recognition codes confirmed, they're ours sir," the communications officer said.

"Bring us around, position us behind Pacifica. We can't take many more hits at this point," Commander Bernard said as the ship rolled with another weapons hit getting through the ever limiting defensive fire from the ship.

"Tell the other ships to do the same," Commander Bernard said shortly.

"Aye sir," the helms and communications officers replied.

Trident maneuvered out of her engagement with the baseships, falling behind Pacifica which continued on through the baseships' formation.

Orion continued firing on the baseship in her path, scoring KEW hits shredding through the central axis. After a few minutes of continued fire the baseship gave way, detonating in an expanding cloud of debris.

A heavily damaged baseship stormed towards Morning Star, launching her remaining complement of nukes, thirty in total. Nearby vipers took out eighteen as they closed distance, with several more taken out by flak fire from Morning Star. Then the remainder impacted, compounding damage across Morning Star's spine along the same path and in close distance with each other, the explosions drew together creating a massive ball of fire consuming the ship until nothing was left. Vipers evaded the molten debris of their former home ship.

The Cylon forces pulled back on all fronts, grouping together at a distance from the colonial ships. Seven baseships got their FTLs back online and jumped out, unable to take more damage. Raiders regrouped around the remaining baseships, with their numbers cut down considerably from the recent arrival's heavy attacks.

Thirteen baseships redeployed, several having taken damage earlier making headway on repairs, though over half maintained a safe distance as they couldn't take a lot more damage in several areas across their ships. As done previously, the least damaged baseships moved to the front to take the brunt of the battle while the others stuck the back and provided long range supporting fire.

Trident continued retreating on its path along with Vigilant and Pike, taking station behind Neptune and Terra. Raptors began moving civilians off the heavily damaged civilian ships to other ships, and began rescuing stranded pilots among the debris field in the area. With Neptune providing defense and sending the fleet coordinates to escape, the fleet made ready to finally jump away within ten minutes.

Pacifica maintained its course following the baseships, with Orion and Amor readying to engage baseships on the other side of the formation away from Pacifica.

Pacifica rained hell on the baseship in front of her with her bow cannons firing heavily into the opposing ship, scoring damage across the ship. Turning on her axis once closer to the Cylon fleet, Pacifica's portside KEWs came online and fired at the next baseship in the lineup.

Orion launched several nukes at the two nearest baseships, with follow up staggered KEW fire. Both baseships shook as the munitions struck home, and went offline as heavy damage finally took its toll across the ships. Orion moved on to the next baseship as Amor closed distance and began bombarding it with her own heavy KEWs, rippling holes throughout sections of the baseship.

Six baseships formed up, firing a combined stream of missiles at Pacifica. Flak fire blew through many before they closed with the ship, with others impacting across the heavy armor on Pacifica.

The other baseships began launching hundreds of missiles at Amor and Orion. Flak fire began streaming out from the two ships, wiping out a majority of the oncoming fire. Many more found their mark across the colonial ships, with another wave quickly launching.

Pacifica closed distance with one baseship and fired another broadside at the heavily damaged ship. KEW fire streamed through the guts of the baseship, moving through large holes rampant across her armor and hull. Maneuvering away, Pacifica avoided the debris of the baseship moving outward. Several baseships took damage as sections of the baseship impacted before they could get out of the way.

Raiders streamed toward Pacifica, and fired off dozens of missiles, while some closed for a strafing run and fired their cannons across the heavily armored Battlestar. Several missiles found their mark on Pacifica, with fires starting inside and across the armor.

Pacifica fired her main KEWs in conjunction with her flak guns into the swarm of raiders, carving straight through the horde of fighters, leaving few survivors that maneuvered away.

Three baseships clumped together and began firing dozens of nukes mixed in with the waves of missiles streaming towards Amor and Orion. Many were taken down as defensive fire from the ships and vipers pitched in, with too many making it to their destination.

Fires sprung up in earnest in over a dozen sections inside Orion, with numerous hull breaches and her armor peeling away and bent in several areas. Casualties quickly mounted, with DC units trying to contain the damage.

Amor was less fortunate as when the bright flash of nukes surrounding the ship dissipated, a mass of fiery debris was all that remained.

After firing her KEWs and several nukes at the nearby baseships, scoring heavy damage, Orion began pulling out and headed back towards the defensive line the other colonial ships were holding position at.

**Battlestar Pacifica CIC**

"Orion is falling back now sir," the communications officer said.

"The civilian ships are beginning to jump out of the system with Trident, Pike, and Dagger as escort. The rest of the damaged civilian ships will follow with Neptune shortly. I suggest Orion follow along, she's got her port pod out of action entirely and a number of cannons offline with fires running amidst the ship," Commander Sebastian said.

"Alright. Take us in. Let's keep the Cylons focus on us a little longer," Admiral Jones said.

"Aye sir," the helms officer replied.

"Let's do a barrel roll. Keep them guessing and get our weapons to bear on several of the baseships," Commander Sebastian suggested.

Admiral Jones raised an eyebrow, and chuckling after a moment, "alright then. You heard the XO, let's make it happen!"

"Aye sir," several CIC officers replied, working furiously, the communications officer alerting the crew to hold on to something.

Outside, another six baseships jumped out as heavy damage forced a tactical withdrawal from the area.

The remaining six baseships moved as one, bracketing around the lone Pacifica in groups of three on each side of the Battlestar.

Pacifica began turning on her axis, firing as she went on the closing baseships to port. She continued turning, firing a full broadside spewing heavy concentrations of cannon fire at the three baseships, scoring numerous hits and damage. As the crew held on for dear life with the ship momentarily going upside down in its position, Pacifica continued turning in a full barrel roll, angling her KEWs and firing another broadside to the three starboard baseships as she came about. All six baseships took a number of hits compounding damage across their superstructure, with armor buckling in many previously damaged areas.

The baseships quickly backed off, giving a good amount of space to provide distance between Pacifica and them while they fired missiles from long range. Vipers and Pacifica's defenses took out most of the missiles with a mere handful impacting to cause light damage across the Battlestar's heavy armor.

Trident and the first group of ships jumped out of the system. The remainder closed ranks, tightening their defenses and preparing to join the others.

**Command Baseship**

The baseship shook again as long range KEW fire found its mark along the heavily scorched up armor covering the baseship, buckling and pushing the armor aside in many sections.

"We need to retreat!" a number three said, picking herself up off the floor.

Several human Cylons lay dead in pools of blood, with parts of the baseships jutting through more than one.

"Retreat? After all we've lost, and the damage we've finally sustained to the humans? We fight on! Kill them here and now!" a number one Cavil said angrily.

"That's bordering on delusion Cavil. All of our ships are barely holding together at this point. The humans may not have focused on destroying our basestars, but we can't take much more punishment anymore," a number six said.

"We agree with the sixes and threes. A tactical withdraw to save our forces is logical. We also agree with the ones; let's send in fresh ships from the colonies to finish this here and now," a number four said.

The Cylon models were silent for a moment in contemplation, then another weapons impact shaking the baseship shook them into action.

"We agree," all seven Cylon models in the room said, putting their hands in the datastream to begin submitting orders to the fleet and get word to ships around the colonies.

Within moments the raiders began withdrawing to the baseships.

**Battlestar Pacifica CIC**

"Sir…" the communications officer said trailing off in disbelief, "the raiders are turning away. The baseships are spinning up their FTL drives and starting to jump out. They're fracking running sir!"

The crew in CIC and others outside and among the fleet began cheering and whooping in joy.

"Take us back to Neptune. Let's make sure the remaining set of jumps goes off safely," Admiral Jones ordered loudly over the noise in CIC.

"Resume your posts people! Feel free to celebrate once we're back home. We're not out of the woods yet until then, so maintain your focus!" Commander Sebastian barked at the crew loudly, quickly silencing them as they grew more focused on their screens in front of them.

Over the next few minutes the raiders landed on their baseships and the Cylons jumped out. Until eventually they were all gone.

Just as Pacifica neared the rest of the fleet and the colonials repositioned among each other and began counting down for their jumps, ready to breathe a sigh of relief, dradis contacts alerted the crew as the ship's sensors started buzzing with activity.

"Dradis contact! Five baseships, and they're launching raiders. They're right on top of the fleet sir!" the dradis officer reported in alarm.

At that moment one baseship that had jumped too close to the fleet collided with one of the colonial fleet ships.

"Sir! Orion…" the dradis officer reported, trailing off in shock as reports flowed into the ship.

Admiral Jones could only watch in shock as the Cylon baseship merged with Battlestar Orion. Having jumped right inside their defensive envelope mere feet from with the ship, the baseship unintentionally rammed into Orion and pierced the Battlestar through the middle of the ship as her spires acting like a sword cut right through the Battlestar's armor. The ensuing explosions among both ships combined, and the fire consuming everything greedily in its path enveloped the two warships. Giving way, detonations as the tylium aboard the ships exploded, ripping apart the two ships into expanding clouds of debris.

"Helm, get us out of the way. Alert the fleet and have them maneuver away and begin their jumps immediately!" Admiral Jones ordered angrily, glaring at the dradis as tears streamed down his face.

Battlestars Neptune and Pacifica came under heavy fire as the four baseships immediately began launching missile after missile towards the Battlestars. At close range, several impacted almost unimpeded by flak fire, causing damage in multiple sections among the mighty Battlestars.

Vipers launched towards the oncoming raiders. Raptors unleashed streams of anti-ship missiles from their attached launchers with their equipped heavy weaponry packages, breaking away once they were empty of munitions. Dozens of raiders fell as missiles impacted destroying them, the others swerved out of the way before reforming their offensive lines to take on the vipers.

Nine civilian ships jumped away in the chaos of the battle, rejoining the rest of the fleet on the other side of the jump.

"Sir, three civilian ships failed to jump!" the communications officer reported.

"What?" Admiral Jones said in disbelief, being thrown to the floor as the next wave of Cylon missiles impacted amidst the ship.

"Have Neptune cover the remaining civilians and jump out!" Commander Sebastian ordered.

Nodding, Admiral Jones got to his feet unsteadily.

"Neptune is to jump out with the civilians! Bring us in right among the center of the baseships," Admiral Jones ordered.

"We're not going to last long in there," Commander Sebastian said quietly, meeting Jones' eyes.

"No. We won't," Admiral Jones said simply.

"You heard the admiral people! Bring us about, starboard main batteries fire on baseship 04, portside batteries HE rounds aiming for baseship 02 to port!" Commander Sebastian said.

"Vipers form up on us, provide defensive fire support. Neptune's birds will cover the civilians and jump out with Neptune momentarily!" Admiral Jones ordered.

"Aye sir!" several members of the CIC crew replied.

Pacifica quickly maneuvered away from the rest of the fleet, firing heavily on the baseships and putting damage on several of them. The baseships began following the flagship of BSG98, forgetting the rest of the survivors, followed by the mass of raiders.

Pacifica's vipers separated from the raiders and the squadrons from Neptune, quickly taking up position around their flagship and providing defensive fire against oncoming missiles. Raiders disengaged and took up posts similarly around their baseships, with a few dozen making strafing runs among the vipers and Pacifica.

Neptune's vipers covered the civilians as they began jumping away. After a few minutes the last heavily damaged civilian ship docked to Neptune with the vipers following closely behind, and Neptune made her jump out of the combat zone.

Gunstar Terra was spooling up to follow, her drives malfunctioned and needing time to reintegrate for the jump, when raiders launched nukes at the ship after closing within point blank range. Terra was unprepared for the assault and most of the missiles found their mark, their combined detonations on top of the ships armor melting through and setting the ship's guts on fire. The fuel lines were set ablaze within seconds and the reactors were compromised, with Terra detonating in a fiery plume and spreading debris in space.

**Outside Red Horse Nebula**

**Neptune CIC**

"Sir! Terra failed to jump!" the communications officer said in alarm.

Commander Jacob looked at the dradis silently, before leaving the uncertainty of what happened to Terra behind in favor of focusing on getting the fleet inside the defenses of their home base.

"Send recognition codes to the defenders near the opening of the nebula. Request DC units, we could use the extra help as could the other damaged warships," Commander Jacob said as Neptune began leading the fleet inside Red Horse Nebula.

"Admiral Thorn is sending out tugs and flattops to bring in the damaged civilian ships, Gunstars, and Trident sir. Trident has most of her systems offline and is showing no maneuvering controls up and running," the communications officer reported.

"Dagger and Pike aren't in much better shape sir," Lieutenant Anderson reported unhappily a moment later.

"We'll have to hope the shipyards can work their magic to get them up and running again. Bring us in; we have our own damages to worry about. Have all available crew begin helping with the damage control teams amidst the ship and gathering up the wounded for transfer to the medical ships since our sick bay is getting awfully full already," Commander Jacob ordered.

"Aye sir," several crewmen in CIC replied.

Colonel Bohen regarded Commander Jacob silently, "and Pacifica sir? We're leaving her to face the Cylons alone?"

"We're following orders colonel. If Pacifica's going to make it out of there at all then she can't have to worry about us like she would be forced to if we were to go back. She's on her own, and if anyone can get them out of there it's Jones," Commander Jacob said sternly.

"Gods help them if you're wrong sir," Colonel Bohen said quietly, leaning toward the Commander so only he could hear.

**Fifteen minutes later**

**Ophion Gas Giant**

**Battlestar Pacifica CIC**

One of the four baseships was turning away with heavy damage from Pacifica's bombardment. The other three closed and encircled around Pacifica, with numerous raiders running across the space between and firing on the vipers and Pacifica.

Pacifica shook as more missiles found their mark across her superstructure, with raiders on strafing runs firing their cannons across her armor and compounding damage across the Battlestar.

"We've lost maneuvering thrusters, we're dead in the water sir," Captain Coleman reported.

Medics worked on several crewmen suffering injuries at their posts in CIC.

"Can't take any more hits to port or we're facing explosive decompressions through frames 113 down to 76," Commander Sebastian said.

"Jump drives?" Admiral Jones asked desperately, holding tight to the plot table with his injured arm as the ship continued to shake from weapons fire.

"All offline now sir," Commander Sebastian said, shaking his head sadly.

Admiral Jones stood in silence as he took the news in.

"Then that's it then," Admiral Jones said, "it's been an honor serving with you all," he continued, saluting the beleaguered crew in CIC as smoke came up from several consoles in the room and alarms alerting damage rang loudly.

Several injured crew members got to their feet unsteadily and joined the rest in saluting the Admiral.

Pacifica continued firing at the nearest baseship exacting damage across the ship's superstructure and cutting through one of the ship's spires.

Pacifica appeared to scream in agony as the baseships continued pummeling her with dozens of missiles launching, with more nukes compiling heavy damage across the ship. Decompressions amidst the ship and hull breaches began taking several crewmen out of the ship and into space, with damage continuing to amount inside the ship, firings raging claiming even more lives.

Vipers were barely keeping the swarms of raiders off their home ship despite several getting through for strafing runs on the ship, even with their numbers depleted as several were destroyed in missile explosions taking them out while damaging Pacifica or having the groups of raiders target them.

Even as several crew members began accepting their fate and rallied to exact as much damage as possible to the enemy, hope came back to the colonials.

Heavy KEW fire and several missiles suddenly launched forth towards the nearest Cylon baseship bearing down on Pacifica. Fires and explosions plumed from the baseship's central axis and the already damaged baseship gave way to the weapons fire as her weakened central axis was cut straight through, and within moments the baseship exploded, unleashing fiery debris which struck her defending raiders.

The long since forgotten, by both sides of the fight, Battlestar Polyeidos surged forward firing on the Cylon baseships.

"Pacifica, this is Polyeidos actual. Let us take some of this work off your hands. Get your jump drives up and running and we'll take care of the rest," Commander Marshall said over the comms on ship to ship to Pacifica before hanging up the comms relay to talk to his crew, "alright, fire up main batteries."

**Battlestar Pacifica CIC**

"Bring us about. Get our FTL up and running immediately. The Cylons will redeploy once they recover," Admiral Jones said, taking note as the three baseships were beginning to abandon their assault on the damaged and nearly crippled Pacifica in favor of coming about towards Polyeidos as it drove forward to meet them.

"Thank you," Admiral Jones said quietly.

**Battlestar Polyeidos CIC**

"They're coming about, maneuvering to bracket around us," Lieutenant Pierce said, taking over as XO with the former executive officer's death.

"Steady as she goes, bring is through the center," Commander Marshall said.

"We can't last long in there, too much damage amidst the ship," Lieutenant Pierce said warningly.

"Have raptors and shuttles begin launching, I want a full evac of the ship starting with nonessential personnel. All fighters are to redeploy with Pacifica and land aboard her when it's ready to leave," Commander Marshall said determinedly.

"Aye sir," several crew members replied, submitting orders throughout the ship.

A few hundred crew members quickly loaded up aboard the raptors and shuttles to escape the ship, with all reserve vipers launching to provide escort to bring them to Pacifica.

Polyeidos maneuvered into the center of the baseships' formation, firing her KEWs at the two nearest baseships on either side of the ship as she ran between them.

The more damaged of the baseships was directly in front of Polyeidos, firing off missiles in conjunction with the other two to swarm munitions through Polyeidos' flak fire. Raiders ran across the space between ships and started strafing runs to fire on the damaged mercury class Battlestar.

Polyeidos received several missile hits and cannon fire from raiders, with fires streaming across her armored hull, explosions ripping away armor plating in several sections. Her heavy KEWs spewed out large concentrations of cannon fire towards the baseships in retaliation, amounting damage as fiery explosions likewise appeared over the armored hull covering the baseships.

Several raiders began putting themselves in the line of fire in front of their mother ships as damage continued to cover the baseships over the next few minutes.

Shuttles and raptors from Pacifica supplemented those moving people from Polyeidos, quickly gathering the remains of the crew aboard the ship.

The engineers aboard Pacifica frantically worked to get the FTLs working again, while DC units set to work on managing fires and damage throughout the ship.

**Battlestar Pacifica CIC**

As several minutes passed with the baseships and Polyeidos continuing to accumulate damage on each side, with one baseship exploding to port as heavy KEW fire ripped it apart, preparations completed aboard Pacifica.

"Send word for the remainder of the crew to evacuate from Polyeidos," Admiral Jones said.

"FTLs back online," Commander Sebastian reported.

"Vipers are landing with all raptors and shuttles onboard. Flight decks are going to be cramped but everything looks good so far," Captain Coleman said.

"Polyeidos is taking a pounding sir. All her birds are landing aboard. She's alone out there and raiders are flying all along her length unchecked," Commander Sebastian said.

"Polyeidos Actual says to jump out now Admiral," the communications officer said.

Admiral Jones stood stock still for a moment, then moved forward to grab hold of the plot table determinedly and grabbing the comms relay, "alright, let's get the hell out of here. All hands get ready to jump."

Within moments after all craft were aboard Pacifica, the Battlestar jumped out of the area.

Raiders continued pouring firing across Polyeidos as the baseships fired more missiles that impacted across Polyeidos, with explosions and fires clearly seen across Polyeidos' surface.

**Battlestar Polyeidos CIC**

"Set main batteries to auto cycle, lock engines all ahead full," Commander Marshall said.

Several CIC crew members hurriedly inputted the commander's orders into the computer consoles.

"All hands, this is the Commander, all crew members are to report to evac raptors. All hands abandon ship, I repeat abandon ship. Good work everyone and I'll see you on the other side," Commander Marshall said.

"Alright people, let's go. Move!" Lieutenant Pierce said, as everyone still in CIC quickly got up and started jogging out of the area.

Commander Marshall walked quietly out the doors of CIC getting one last look in, as fires and explosions reined throughout the room.

Within a few minutes raptors carrying the last of the crew members of the ship escaped from the starboard flightpod and jumped out just outside of Polyeidos.

Polyeidos continued on her charge, rushing past raiders in her way and slammed into the baseship in front of her. The impact detonated both ships and their munitions, with debris slamming every which way. Raiders were hard pressed to escape as dozens blew up with the littering debris making contact with them. A huge chunk of the former Battlestar slammed into the other baseship before it could maneuver away, with the ensuing explosion consuming the ship and nearby raiders. The remaining raiders began jumping out of the area as they evaded debris.

**Several Hours Later**

**Red Horse Nebula**

**Olympia Station**

"All ships have been placed in the docks on Unity and Eternity sir," Commander Corgon reported.

"Good. It's nice to see more survivors despite the fact that we couldn't get there in time to save them all," Admiral Thorn said, bitter sweet happiness and sadness in his voice, before taking a deep breath and exhaling the stress he was feeling.

"Unfortunately there's bad news on the recovered military fleet units sir," Commander Corgon said unhappily.

"How bad?" Admiral Thorn asked apprehensively.

"Gunstars Vigilant, Dagger, and Pike are barely holding in one piece sir. As is, it's amazing they survived the FTL jump to get here after all the structural damage sustained which shipyard personnel have been combing through. Repair work is solidly out of the question and though we could start tearing out a lot of the ship and replace most everything with new equipment, it wouldn't be exactly economical for Gunstars when we have the rest of the fleet to consider and the hope to build more ships in the future. Scrapping them is about the only option on the table," Commander Corgon said sadly.

"And Trident?" Admiral Thorn asked, dreading the answer now as he contemplated Corgon's words.

"Unfortunately I saved the worst for last. Trident was already facing problems due to her age and needing a serious refit when the attacks began. The damage she took over time combined with the hell she sustained in this latest battle simply seal her fate. She has a few jumps left in her at max and beyond that she'll face risks of coming apart from the spatial disruptions when she tries to jump again. We can patch her up and solidify her structural supports as best we can, but she's near the point of no return where we just can't help her; all ship's age out eventually as it is and no amount of ripping equipment out to replace with better tech can stop that. We can send her on one last mission or we can scrap her," Commander Corgon reported.

"I'd hoped the new ships could reinforce us but apparently not," Admiral Thorn said, sighing heavily.

"We could get some more use out of them, but they reached the end of the line. Trying to save them just is isn't feasible, particularly with our current fleet situation. Unfortunately I also have to report on Pacifica sir," Commander Corgon said.

"What?" Admiral Thorn asked in shock, dreading more bad news.

"Pacifica's not nearly as bad off as the others and given how much newer she is in comparison she's not in a dire position. However, she did just barely escape her last encounter with the Cylons and it came with a price. The best we can do for her is a patch job with the time we have, but I can definitively say if she goes on her next mission you've been planning as the last before Stryker's return, then it could very well be the end of the ship. Sending her out is not advisable until a longer yard period to extensively repair her damage is complete," Commander Corgon said.

"Unfortunately Admiral Jones won't let the other ships go without his support despite what you just told me. Can't say I can name many ship commanders who would. So we'll have to prepare with that in mind. Enforce skeleton crews on all ships that will go out for this next mission. Perhaps they can join the other recovered crews without a home in training new fleet personnel on the fleet training ships," Admiral Thorn said.

"Aye sir," Commander Corgon said.

**Day 44 Since the Fall**

**Cylon Occupied Caprica**

Sharon Eight was scouting out the path to the Delphi space port, having left behind Helo sleeping in their hide out a few clicks away.

Holding up her binoculars to see the comings and goings of raiders and captured ships to the spaceport, Sharon calculated the time schedule and located the small craft left on the side unused for the moment.

So engrossed in her work, Sharon didn't notice she had a visitor until the visitor reached to touch her shoulder. Getting on her feet, Sharon shied away from contact and put distance between her and the Cylon, readying her gun to take aim and fire.

"It's ok Sharon. I'm not here to hurt you," another Eight model known as Alison Valerii said, putting her hands up and trying to appear unthreatening.

"Give me one good reason not to shoot you now," Sharon asked viciously.

"Could you though? Shoot one of your own with malice in your heart?" Alison Valerii asked curiously.

Sharon Eight glared at her sister model angrily, her finger itching to pull the trigger.

"Alright then. Logically if you shoot me I could download and possibly tell the others of your plans and bar any chance of your plans to escape with Helo," Alison Valerii said simply.

Sharon considered her words without lowering her weapon, "I could still get him out if your download takes time. It's not like there's another option."

"But there is Sharon. You think you are alone in going beyond what Cavil and the others wanted? We may not all have rebelled so clearly as what you're doing right now, but believe me when I tell you not everyone agrees with everything the majority of Cylons have us doing. I won't tell anyone what you're doing and I'll even ensure the path is clear for you now," Alison Valerii said.

"Why?" Sharon asked suspiciously.

"Because sister, I think you're right to keep your child out of the way of the others, and taking the one you love to safety is admirable and really the only acceptable option. There will be issues for you where I expect you're planning to go, but in the end your family may just be safer there," Alison Valerii said.

Sharon stood quietly still, contemplating her sister in disbelief and distrust.

"Good bye sister, and good luck," Alison Valerii said, turning and walking away quietly.

Sharon watched the other Cylon leave quietly, and apprehensively began planning a way around the newest development in her escape plan, leaving no chance for her sister Cylon to betray her in the likely event she was lying. Delphi was still her best shot at getting Helo out and they were too close to shy away from taking the risk in escaping now.


	6. 1x06 The Resistance Begins

**The Resistance Begins**

**Day 49 Since the Fall**

**Virgon's moon Hibernia**

BSG98 jumped into space above the one habitable moon orbiting Virgon; Battlestars Pacifica and Neptune, accompanied by the skeleton crewed Gunstars Vigilant, Dagger, and Pike maneuvered into a defensive formation.

**Battlestar Pacifica CIC**

"All units are in position sir," Commander Sebastian reported.

"Very well. Keep us at long range with sporadic KEW fire. Send word for the package to be sent in and the transports to make ready," Admiral Jones said.

"Aye sir," the communications, helm, and weapons officers replied.

"Viper pilots man your plans, all fighters are to launch now and take up defensive pickets around the fleet," Commander Sebastian said, holding up the comms relay, his message being delivered throughout the ships of the fleet.

Within minutes all vipers launched from the colonial fleet taking up in position around the colonial ships, while raiders launched towards the fleet from the Cylon baseship on station over Hibernia.

Just as the majority of raiders had left their defensive positions over the baseship, the colonial's present for the Cylons jumped in. The unmanned Battlestar Trident jumped in front of the baseship. Continuing on her preplanned route with her forward motion intact, Trident sped towards the baseship. The human Cylons aboard panicked and tried to maneuver out of the way to no avail, simply not having enough time as Trident quickly launched forward and rammed straight into the heart of the baseship, impacting along the central axis. Ripping through several sections of armor on the way and explosions erupting on both ships, nuclear ordinance purposefully left behind on Trident detonated. Exposed and already taking damage on impact from the Battlestar smashing into the heart and vuilnerable area of the baseship, the Cylons aboard could do little more than curse at their misfortune as nuclear explosions raged through the hole made in the baseship, quickly sweeping through and consuming both ships. A fiery plume rose up from the area as both ships detonated in the explosions aboard, destroyed, and raining debris fragments pushed away and impacted nearby raiders that had remained with the baseship.

Admiral Jones and many aboard the CIC saluted as the Trident gave her last contribution to the war effort.

"Vipers are to engage the remaining raiders and finish them quickly. Send word to the transports that they have a go," Admiral Jones said.

"Aye sir," the communications officer said.

Vipers holding position in a defensive line across the colonial fleet and firing defensively on the raiders' formations assaulting their positions quickly dropped their defensive lines and surged towards the raiders, bloodthirsty and ready reap more losses for the Cylons. Unprepared, the raiders were driven back with many losses as the vipers ripped through the enemy formation and divided to engage in dogfights with the remaining raiders, taking and holding onto the initiative as they quickly eliminated their foes and began outnumbering them.

Transport ships, with a number of emptied civilian ships among them, jumped into Hibernia's atmosphere escorted by several assault raptors. Within minutes the transports landed on the outskirts of the former location of the capital city of Hibernia which lay in ruins. Survivors that had spread out among the surface of the moon, either unwilling or unable to leave when the evacuation of Virgon occurred during the Cylon attack, began streaming into the transports, with stragglers brought in by raptors flying across the moons terrain.

Battlestars Pacifica and Neptune took up station above the moon with their escorting Gunstars, ready for the Cylon counterattack as three Cylon baseships orbiting Virgon noticed the colonials' assault and had raiders launching. The colonials prepared for a long battle that did not come as had been expected in the mission's planning.

**Virgon orbit**

**Cylon Baseship**

"You heard me correctly. We're not going to launch our fleet and other units in a mad dash to get the colonials before they leave," a number three D'Anna said.

"Have you gone mad?" a number five Doral asked.

"Lost your will to fight three?" a number one Cavil asked sarcastically, narrowing his eyes in anger at the offending Cylon.

"Perhaps I'm just smarter than you are Cavil. The humans have beaten us back on several occasions in the past and given the recent debacle our trap became recently leaving much of our fleet damaged and requiring time in the shipyards, I won't see more of our resources lost fruitlessly," D'Anna said.

"We agree. Too many ships in the fleet have been lost already, and with the number in the shipyards and leaving for Galactica and Prometheus' fleets our fleets patrolling the colonies are at an all-time low. Losing more ships without a good chance of success is not an option," a number Six Iliana said, looking to her ally eight as she spoke for her and noticing her nod in agreement.

"Let's not forget that the humans just used the Trident to destroy one of our baseships. It was an unexpected move and while it takes one more player off the board, the fact is we don't know what else the humans have planned as contingency in this latest assault. Don't forget that reports are coming on in other fleet units under assault by colonial forces Cavil, this is a coordinated strike that the colonials have clearly put a lot of preparation into," a number eight said.

"So we allow the humans to get whatever supplies and survivors they desire off of Hibernia? Just let them get whatever they want without resistance?" the number one Cavil said indignantly, seething with rage.

"Don't be petulant Cavil. I'm not suggesting giving the colonials room to do as they will in fear of losing our ships. We simply take advantage of when they're most vulnerable when the humans bring their ships off the moon's surface. Then we attack with other forces until the risk is eliminated so we can bring in our baseships," the D'Anna number three replied.

"We're agreed. Let's prepare a strike force," a number eight said, with numbers six and two nodding in agreement.

"Then we have a majority. We go with D'Anna's plan," a number four Simon said simply.

The human Cylons placed their hands into the data stream of the baseship and began sending out orders to prepare for their counterattack on the nearby colonials.

**Two Hours Later**

**Hibernia**

**Battlestar Pacifica CIC**

"Transports are leaving the surface sir. So far no sign of movement from the Cylons," the dradis officer reported.

"Not what we expected of the Cylons sir," Commander Sebastian said, looking over in concern at the Admiral from across the other side of plot table.

"Indeed. Maybe we'll get lucky and they'll continue to leave us alone," Admiral Jones said.

"Could be that they're afraid of us," Commander Sebastian said chuckling at the idea.

"Let's all hope so," Admiral Jones said.

The transports began jumping out from Hibernia with their escorts while BSG98 remained on station with all vipers in defensive positions for an expected Cylon offensive.

"Dradis contacts!" the dradis officer shouted out in alarm as many new contacts began swarming the screen, within space over the colonial fleet ships.

"And there goes our hopes," Commander Sebastian said.

"What's the count, how many baseships are in range?" Admiral Jones asked expectantly.

"None sir. Dradis can't get an accurate fix because so many are jumping in, but estimated thousands of raiders in position launching towards us," the dradis officer said.

"No baseships?" Commander Sebastian said in confusion.

"They might not even need them. They're positioning to swarm over us," Admiral Jones said as his face became deathly pale at the implications.

"Orders sir?" the communications officer asked, with panic clear in his voice.

"All vipers are to launch and take up position to defend the Battlestars as best they can; the Gunstars won't be as heavily targeted since they're just not as important right now. Given the Gunstars' damage and limited crew we can't expect too much gunnery support from them either," Admiral Jones said.

Taking up the comms relay from the plot table Commander Sebastian began speaking gruffly, "all reserve vipers are to begin launching now. All fighters aboard to launch no matter their condition, if anyone's so much as dreamed of piloting a viper or raptor they're to get their asses into those fighters and provide us with cover. Now!"

Admiral Jones nodded in approval at his XO and turned to look back at the dradis in dread.

Thousands of raiders exited FTL near the colonial fleet, quickly rushing towards the colonial fleet even as more vipers launched to meet them. The slightly over 500 viper fighters with those launching were sorely outnumbers against the roughly 5000 raiders. The main viper force remained in defense positions, adding their defensive fire with the Battlestars and limited fire from the Gunstars against the oncoming threat, with a smaller force of vipers heading off to run across their lines as a distraction.

Pacifica and Neptune opened up with their all flak cannons firing at the raiders, along with their heavy KEWs which tore huge holes in the groupings of raiders, but the raiders kept coming ignoring their losses.

Thousands of missiles launched from the raiders, along with many firing their cannons in strafing runs at the Battlestars.

Defensive fire from flak guns on the capital ships and from vipers eliminated many missiles even as more were fired to take their place.

Fires broke out across Pacifica and Neptune's armor as cannon fire made contact and several missiles impacting in the same area broke through sections of armor causing hull breaches.

Dozens of raiders were destroyed in plumes of fire, the remainder following their primary programming and continuing to fire at the colonial ships and ignoring the losses sustained and reforming their lines the plug the holes in their formations.

"Tango squadron and Delta get on the portside, make sure those raiders don't break through Pacifica's defensive fire!" Major Galvin Drake ordered, noticing a break in the Cylon formation to push through the wall of defensive fire Pacifica was putting up.

"Aye sir," several viper pilots replied, the squadron quickly maneuvering to fire on the new threat and taking out many of the raiders trying to break through while others trying to flee the new assault maneuvered into Pacifica's flak fire.

Major Drake turned his viper slightly, firing on oncoming raiders from another direction. _There's too many, the barge can't handle this onslaught_, he thought to himself.

Raiders swarmed over the colonial ships, beginning to predict the boundaries to the flak fire the Battlestars put out and avoid the heavy fire from the ships' main batteries by spreading out into thinner lines.

The lone squadron of 30 vipers taking on raiders from the edge of their lines strode past several wrecks of raiders in their path; as they drew more attention and led several dozen raiders break off to follow the vipers away from the main battle.

Over a hundred raiders swarmed over the Gunstar Vigilant and ended the limited threat she posed as she blew up from strafing cannon fire along the ship, while Vigilant took several dozen raiders with her from defensive fire and the ensuing explosion from her death claimed more nearby as fire from her munitions detonating consumed the raiders.

Damage started accumulating on Pacifica and Neptune as raiders broke through defensive fire in increasing numbers, cannon fire and missiles impacting along the ships in many areas. Heavy KEW cannons and flak guns started exploding or being taken offline with the raiders concentrating fire to lower the Battlestars' resistance. Fires and hull breaches broke it in a number of sections across the ships as the armor shook and pulled apart when the punishment the ships were taking began to be too much in multiple areas.

Several nearby vipers were destroyed as weapons fire hitting the Battlestars took them out from proximity to the detonation.

Amidst the chaos they caused, small numbers of raiders jumped out once low on ammunition or fuel and came back once reequipped, while the rest continued their relentless assault on the colonials.

Raptors launched full loads of dozens of interceptor missiles into the raider formations, destroying several raiders, and jumped out once empty of ammunition – reloading at the rally point since they couldn't make a safe voyage back to the flightpods to rearm.

Raiders regrouped as numbers of raiders were lost in each grouping making up their formations, showing that despite the damage and destruction being unleashed on the colonials; it didn't come without its own severe price.

**Twenty minutes into raiders' invasion**

**Battlestar Pacifica CIC**

Admiral Jones got to his feet unsteadily as yet another round of ordinance made contact with Pacifica, sending tremors throughout the ship, with the armor beginning tear away layer by layer – never meant to take so much punishment from close range cannon fire and numerous missiles and nukes the raiders had unleashed.

"Raiders are starting to go on suicide runs Admiral. That was a group of raiders just slamming into the ship," Commander Sebastian said in disbelief as reports came through to CIC.

"Gunstar Pike is burning in space, abandoned by all hands. Dagger was just destroyed by raiders carrying out the same tactics as they did on us; clusters of raiders just slammed into the ship until it gave way. Neptune is reporting the same as we are and weapon mounts are decreasing with the continued Cylon onslaught," the dradis officer reported.

"On the bright side we've destroyed several thousand of them," Commander Sebastian said chuckling darkly.

"Still leaves around two thousand out there. Not to mention the baseships still nearby over Virgon," Admiral Jones said grimly.

"Guess they want to wear us down until they've got a sure kill," Commander Sebastian said angrily.

"Engineering reports the secondary energizers going down. We can spool up FTLs still, but if the other reactors go out…" Lieutenant Terry Cooper reported from his station in CIC.

"Can't start spooling FTL until we're clear. We'll be even more vulnerable against weapons fire otherwise and we just can't risk it," Admiral Jones said.

"There is one option we could try Admiral. It's risky, but given what we're facing now and damage sustained to the fleet already… We may not have another choice," Commander Sebastian said.

"At this point we'll be down to throwing rocks at the bastards soon enough. If you've got a plan that could work, then you have the go ahead to do it," Admiral Jones said, looking at Sebastian with complete faith in him.

Commander Sebastian grabbed the comms relay and requested it be set to both Battlestars, "This is Commander Sebastian. Load all launch tubes with nukes. Prepare to launch in two minutes and simultaneously have both ships veer away to starboard at maximum thrust, with emergency thrusters activated to launch both ships as far from the intended blast wave as possible. All crew members be prepared for contact and hold onto something. All nearby fighters are to launch away at full burn. May the Lords watch over us all."

Admiral Jones raised his eyebrows at his XO's plan and speech, but said nothing to belay his orders.

Pacifica and Neptune quickly loaded their missile tubes with the crews following the orders of the fleet's second in command to the letter. Vipers began leaving their defensive positions and maneuvered at full burn away from the Battlestars, appearing to the Cylons as if they were leaving the fleet to die.

Raiders swarmed the Battlestars in ever increasing numbers, no longer impeded by the vipers and the majority had gathered to surround the Battlestars while a few squadrons chased after the vipers.

Damage intensified aboard the Battlestars as the increasing weapons fire from the raiders, with even several still slamming into the ship on suicide runs, left behind massive damage. Fires and hull breaches ran rampant, with the damage control stations outlining the Battlestars showing over half of both ships outlined in red for damage. Over half of the weapons platforms for point defense and the main batteries covering each Battlestar had been blasted off as well.

Pacifica and Neptune launched nukes from all functioning launch tubes, giving a soft launch protocol for the missiles to short out at a predetermined distance – in this case right outside where they launched close to the Battlestars hulls. Both Battlestars simultaneously streamed away from the area at maximum thrust to starboard, with emergency thrusters or more accurately controlled explosives going off along the port pushing the colonial ships quickly out of the area. The Battlestars had to plow straight through the raiders in their way, taking damage as the raiders exploded across their armor, leading to more of the armor tearing away and causing internal damage that was momentarily ignored.

Within twenty seconds of the Battlestars maneuvering away at maximum speed, with raiders just beginning to follow, the launched nukes detonated in the center of the storm of raiders.

The massive explosions from the nuclear warheads consumed hundreds of raiders in an instant, but the creature of destruction created in the blast was not satisfied yet as the close formations of raiders led to a chain reaction, the blast moving on and on consuming everything in its path. Crimson fire consumed raider upon raider, leaving nothing left, save the raiders that had already been away from the blast wave. Over two thousand raiders had been destroyed, with the consuming fire and explosions so intense not even debris was left behind.

Despite the distance the Battlestars claimed from their measures to escape the blast wave, the sea of raiders involved in the chain reaction leading towards them brought a measure of fire making contact along the ships' heavy topside armor. Though the armor mostly held and kept the fire from continuing as range increased from the blast, several sections of the ship were cordoned off as hull breaches opened multiple frames of the Battlestars to space from the heat of the fires literally melting through sections of armor. The nearly three hundred personnel inside the affected sections were lost as they were ripped out of their ships and thrown into space without protective gear.

With the blast ending with nothing more to consume in the dark cold of space, the Battlestars began turning to defensive positions against the raiders still around and had DC units crawling around throughout both ships to contain the massive amount of damage marring the once pristine mercury class Battlestars they maintained.

The vipers engaged the raiders and after running low on their remaining munitions maneuvered away within a few minutes to reload aboard their home ships.

**Battlestar Pacifica CIC**

"About two hundred raiders coming in sir. Vipers are landing to refuel and rearm," the dradis officer reported.

"Certainly fewer than before. A good plan Commander, despite its risks," Admiral Jones said happily, looking at Commander Sebastian with pride.

"Thank you sir. Unfortunately our recent damage sustained is staggering. Most weapons have been destroyed or taken offline on both ships. Even reduced in force, we may not be able to take on the Cylons. With only a couple squadrons of our vipers remaining and most needing a few minutes to rearm before getting back out there," Commander Sebastian said sadly.

"Maybe. We have more of a chance now than we did a few minutes ago. The raptors will be returning again shortly and give us time for the vipers to get ready to go. I'm not ready to give up hope just yet," Admiral Jones said, looking hard at his XO.

"Aye sir," Commander Sebastian said, strengthening his resolve and ready to continue the fight.

"Cylons are re-engaging now," the dradis officer said, noticing as the raiders regrouped into formations before heading towards the Battlestars.

"Helm, take us hard to port and bring us about, most of our functional point defense and batteries are there, so get them pointed at the raiders," Admiral Jones ordered.

"Aye sir!" the helm and several weapons officers replied.

Two hundred raiders reached engagement range and began firing on the Battlestars once more. Several dozen missiles launched towards the Battlestars, with the number cut in half by the working point defense even as the others impacted across the two ships. One of Neptune's engines was taken offline as the section of the ship she was in had a long hull breach rip apart several nearby systems and hardware, with shrapnel being thrown at the engines. Other areas of both ships received more damage. The damage report screens would show ninety percent of both ships were covered in red, signifying damage. Several sections of both ships required venting to put out fires, sacrificing the crew members there to save the lives of the rest.

Offensive fire from the remaining batteries on the Battlestars came online and shredded the Cylon formations, destroying dozens of raiders. After breaking away from the cannon fire hitting their formations, the raiders quickly took advantage of Pacifica's weakness and maneuvered away towards the portside where little to no defensive fire was coming from, giving free access for a strafing run across the ship. Other raiders slammed into the starboard side of Pacifica with others doing the same on Neptune, destroying several of the remaining point defense and offensive KEWs still online on each ship.

Raptors jumped back into space behind the groupings of raiders. They launched dozens of missiles before jumping back out again. Several raiders were hit by the weapons fire, creating huge gaps in the raiders formations.

Then 60 vipers began launching from the Battlestars and reengaged the remaining raiders. Despite their lowered numbers, they were nearly even now with the raiders and quickly took the initiative beginning to wipe out all raiders in their path.

Several raiders continued their attack runs on the Battlestars, finally slamming into them and causing heavy damage. Less than ten percent of both Battlestars' weapons were able to continue firing sporadically on the remaining raiders.

Within a few minutes the remaining raiders were run down and eliminated by the vipers, with casualties taken among the fighters and pilots. The remaining vipers landed aboard Neptune and Pacifica.

**Battlestar Pacifica CIC**

"All vipers aboard sir," the communications officer said.

"Dradis contact! Four Cylon baseships on intercept course, launching raiders and missiles," the dradis officer reported.

"FTLs spooling. Looks like a photo finish, 1 minute until they're in range and 45 seconds to jump," Commander Sebastian said.

"Some luck then," Admiral Jones said.

CIC shook as heavy raiders that jumped into close range let loose several missiles and nukes at Pacifica and Neptune, several impacting unimpeded and creating massive damage where the armor was breached. The port flight pod on Pacifica was hit hard with severe damage all across the sections of the ship inside, killing many of the personnel inside as fires, hull breaches, and shrapnel ran unchecked inside. The CIC was one of the most heavily armored areas of the ship, and still the armor had degraded and given way to the point where several holes formed sucking the air inside out to space. Admiral Jones was among many officers thrown around the ship, with shrapnel hitting and wounding several.

Barely holding together after the latest attack, Pacifica and Neptune jumped out leaving the streams of missiles and raiders launched by the baseships to sweep through the empty space the two ships previously occupied.

**Day 50 Since the Fall**

**Red Horse Nebula, Olympia Station**

"Survivors from Hibernia have been distributed among the fleet to prevent overpopulation, and those with medical needs were sent to the medical ships. Also, the attacks on Canceron and Gemenon sufficiently split up the Cylons, and they're diverting fleet assets around trying to prevent another random attack since they don't know where we'll attack next," Commander Corgon said.

"Sounds good. More survivors is definitely great for us, hopefully there won't be too many issues of overcrowding, particularly with these new arrivals," Admiral Thorn said.

"Shouldn't be a problem sir. We can always take them on the shipyards by scrounging up room since we're still not at our max capacity for how many people we can hold on Unity and Eternity. Also, I'm afraid the verdict is in on Pacifica and Neptune," Commander Corgon said.

"How bad?" Admiral Thorn asked, already dreading the answer.

"Both were taken way past their limits and frankly it's a miracle they survived jumping to get here with as much structural damage and large gaps in armor the shipyard personnel have come across. I'm sorry sir, but they're at that stage where we just have to scrap them. They'd never hold together from a mere repair work; entire sections require a full rebuild and the amount of materials involved… It'd be easier to build two new Battlestars sir," Commander Corgon said regretfully.

Admiral Thorn was silent for a long moment before responding, "No."

"Sir?" Commander Corgon asked in confusion.

"If they're in such a state where a rebuild really costs us then we're going to get out our full cubits' worth out of them. And after the punishment they've taken and all they've given us, we owe it to those ships and their crews counting on us to get them out there again. Like Theseus, we'll use them as prototypes for weapons and technology advancements, which will make up for the length of time it'll take getting the ships up and running again," Admiral Thorn said determinedly.

"Very well sir. Also, Admiral Jones is still in a coma. It may yet be a while for him to recover, if he does at all," Commander Corgon replied.

"Let's not give out hope on him just yet. Now, the crews from BSG98 will need to be offloaded, and while several like Commander Sebastian will want to stay aboard the shipyards to be involved in work on their ships, the majority should be place on other ships and I'd suggest luxury ships with space to offer. They've more than earned a reprieve, and may just need it with the wounds many have incurred and psychological stress from all they've gone through," Admiral Thorn said.

"It will be done sir," Commander Corgon said in agreement.

A Lieutenant walked into the room urgently, "Sir, Admiral Stryker is coming aboard; he'll be joining you shortly."

"Very well, I'll be waiting for him. Commander, if you would, take command of looking into the updates among the shipyards and managing the fleet for now, I'm sure a lot awaits us now," Admiral Thorn said.

The Lieutenant and Commander Corgon left the Admiral alone, where he would soon be joined by Admiral Stryker.

Atlantis was docked to Olympia station and her escorts took up positions around the station.

The day Admiral Thorn and those under his command had finally come; Atlantis and their hopes and dreams for safety and getting what remained of the colonies to safety to rebuild had arrived. They had completed their jobs splendidly and survived through the Cylon onslaught until Stryker's arrival, as well as paving the way for the upcoming missions he would lead among the colonies.

THE END


End file.
